


The Just Destiny of Fools

by clari_clyde



Category: Smallville, The Eagle | The Eagle of the Ninth (2011)
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-30
Updated: 2013-07-30
Packaged: 2017-12-21 22:19:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 27,082
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/905597
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clari_clyde/pseuds/clari_clyde
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>Smallville</i> <abbr>AU</abbr>. Marcus is captivated by a visiting Luthor Corp. executive and her talk of Destiny. But is her not being a Luthor enough reason to trust her? And is Esca pulling Marcus way from or pushing him towards her?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Acknowledgements: Many thanks to the ever loving [**sistermine**](http://sistermine.livejournal.com/) for being the ever patient beta reader through many drafts, and [**imera**](http://imera.livejournal.com/) for the beautiful cover.
> 
> Pairings: Marcus / Esca, Marcus / Tess. If you squint hard: Marcus / Placidus (aka Sid) and Esca / Liathan in their pasts.
> 
> Spoilers: _Smallville_ seasons 4 – 10.
> 
> Notes: Starts at _Smallville_ season 4 where they are high school seniors and goes from there. The Seal Prince, I’ve given him the name Liathan from the book. As for Placidus, I renamed him Sid to sound more contemporary and modern.
> 
> Warnings PG-13 for disability, ableism, kidnappings, dub-con and non-con sexual battery, D / s dynamics, sub drops, discussions of rape, self harm.
> 
> Written for The Eagle Big Bang 2013 and crossposted to my LJ, [master post](http://clari-clyde.livejournal.com/321322.html), and downloadable [EPUB](http://fanfic.pinktisane.com/ebooks/epub/The%20Just%20Destiny%20of%20Fools%20-%20Clari%20Clyde.epub)

[ ](http://lj.pinktisane.com/entries/2013/the_just_destiny_of_fools/cover.jpg)

❀

Marcus runs past the towering cornfields swaying heavy in the breeze, his unlettered letterman jacket making a blur of Smallville High School’s red and yellow when he sees and slows down for his friends — Esca, Sid, Liathan, and Cottia.

“Football permission slip!” Marcus calls out, still passing by. “Esca! Race you home?”

“He’ll get creamed!” says Liathan.

“I actually think he’d be real good as a quarterback” says Sid. “Just as long as he’d be willing to look stupid like a female muslim athlete.”

Cottia swats Sid’s arm and corrects him, “As long as he’s willing to _cover up_ his skin and there are female muslim athletes as role models for that.”

“Whatev, Cottia. It still looks weird especially when it looks like he has no reason to be so modest.”

As Cottia continues to school Sid in political correctness and as she, Sid and Liathan ponder Marcus’s chances for making quarterback, Marcus and Esca race until they arrive home and Marcus bursts through the back kitchen door. “Uncle!”

“Marcus,” says his uncle at the kitchen table looking up from the bills. “What’s that you have there?”

“Football permission slip.”

“Marcus. Son,” his uncle says while shaking his head. “You and I have already talked about this.”

“But this is different! Clark’s never been allowed to even try out and he’s finally trying out this year — ”

“And whatever changed there, that is a matter for Clark Kent and his parents — Martha and Jonathan — to discuss.”

Marcus stomps a foot. “I can move through the pain now. I can even walk and run through it.”

“Yes, I’m perfectly aware.”

“You are? Wait . . .”

“Oh yes. If you can hear the patter of Esca’s feet from your room to his — especially at 7 a.m. in the morning — then so can I.”

“Oh, um . . .” Marcus blushes and looks away. Then he snaps out of it to point out, “Then you know why I can play football!”

“Marcus. Son. It’s different.”

“No, it’s — ”

“You know Esca and he has had many years to heal and you have been by his side all these years. But the gridiron is different. There are too many strong feelings on both sides of the line of scrimmage — your feelings, their feelings, everyone’s feelings.”

“You’re wrong about Esca!” And with that, Marcus stomps away until he is in his room and his door shuts with a bang.

“Esca . . .” Marcus’s uncle starts but then fades.

“No.” Esca stares the old man down. “You’re right about my having had years.” He holds up his palm to Marcus’s uncle to signal him to keep sitting down. “I’ll go check on him.”

At Marcus’s door, Esca knocks on the door before letting himself into Marcus’s space where in one corner, a gold-painted eagle with out-stretched wings stands guard over the sanctuary. Marcus sits curled up on his bed and looking down at the woven threads under his fingertips, his back up against a wall.

“You should’ve told Uncle he was wrong,” Marcus says quietly.

“I’ve had time. I have better coping mechanisms now,” Esca whispers back, still standing by the now-closed door.

“But you still hurt.” Marcus looks up to Esca. “I know you.”

Esca moves to stand over Marcus’s bed and reaches a hand to him.

“Esca, don’t.” Marcus turns to face the wall beside him. “I don’t want you to hold me up.”

“I bring you down.”

“Don’t say that!” Marcus stands up to meet Esca. He brings a hand to Esca’s face but stops just shy of Esca’s skin until Esca nods. At contact, every cell in Marcus’s body feels weighed down by lead to the ground while the pain in his legs burrows down from skin to the cores of his bones. As he wraps his arms around Esca, he pulls him in closer and says, “See? I’m still standing.”

The pain in his legs lingers on with constant intensity but as the moments pass, the weight eases off. “So no more feeling heavy for me, okay?” Esca stands still, but his burden lifting is enough for Marcus. As Esca smiles, a spark of pain jolts Marcus but he also feels the pressure lift off his shoulders as Esca begins to feel lighter.

Later, as the sun sets into the lower left corner of the window, there is a knock on the door and Marcus’s uncle enters. Esca sits on the edge of the bed, his hand on Marcus’s thigh, thick fabric between his and Marcus’s skin, as Marcus faces the wall.

“Marcus.” The old man sits on the bed next to Esca. “I know it bothers you — all the jokes lots of other people make, your father the butt of those jokes.”

“He’s only the poster boy for the stupidest mistake you make in football. What kind of guy accidentally runs a touchdown for the other team?”

“I know you want a better reputation and legacy for his name. But it’s not going to be through football.”

“Then how? By being a farmer? Big deal.”

“By using all the gifts — ”

“What gifts?” Marcus turns his head to face his uncle. “Because all I have is a curse.”

“Marcus.” He brings his hand to Marcus but stops just short. With a sigh, he gets up to leave, but not before one last look at Marcus and Esca on the bed.

❀

The school year starts and the months pass by uneventfully for Marcus; the cornfields turning from towering green stalks to barren post-harvest earth are the only change — the only change for Marcus anyways. Changes — such as block letters to go onto a letterman jacket — are for people like Clark Kent. 

Clark Kent, whom Marcus notices, wears his height now with ease, no more of the crouching shoulders that desperately try to blend him despite his height over everyone else. Despite being the newest member of the football team and only half of a season of play, Marcus can’t help but think that Clark projects his new hero status as if he had been the hero all along — so long as he is surrounded by his bubble of empty space or Lana or Chloe or Chloe’s annoying cousin.

“The green eyed monster lurks within the masses.” Esca whispers into Marcus’s ear after creeping up behind as Clark passes by.

“Ooh,” Marcus teases back. “Is someone in danger of becoming a green-eyed monster himself?”

“Everyone — well everyone except _me_  — has been looking at him differently since the championship game. Everyone including _you._ ”

“Nope. I started long before that when he got his jacket, which he rarely ever ever ever wears.”

“Not helping your case!” Esca grins. “I gotta go get my BB gun back from Liathan. Meet you home? And by the way — ” Esca shoves and dumps his backpack onto Marcus. “The later you get home, the less time you have to plead your case — ” And off he dashes, running footsteps and laughter fading into the distance.

“You little — ” Marcus stands peeved and pouting. “Well fine.” And off he dashes to his locker to get his books and then to the parking lot, when he rounds a corner — 

Crash!

And Clark’s hand is holding Marcus’s as Marcus falls to the ground.

“Oh no!” Clark keeps his hold on Marcus. “Are you all right?”

“Yeah, I’m — ” Marcus’s legs stay still. “I . . .” Marcus stays on the floor looking confused. “I can’t move my legs? . . . I can’t feel my legs.”

“I’m so sorry!” Clark lets go of Marcus’s hand. “I’m so sorry. I’ve gotta get you to the hospital.” He puts on Marcus and Escape's backpacks over his and then carries Marcus out the building to the parking lot. There is so much ease to Clark’s carrying Marcus that Marcus feels as if he is soaring through the halls. And when Clark sets him down into the passenger seat, Marcus feels like a feather falling to rest.

“Wow,” Marcus whispers to himself looks at Clark.

“I’m sorry.” Once on the way, Clark keeps his eyes focused on the road. “Really. I am. I should’ve been more careful. Especially with you — ”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I mean, I should be more careful; I break a lot of stuff by accident. And you — ”

“I’m not any more fragile than that linebacker whose collarbone you broke,” Marcus cuts in. “I’m prolly even stronger too.”

“Oh.” Clark keeps the car rolling but his words hesitate. “I’d rather not relive a very low moment in my super short football career.”

“Especially not after the School Spirit Rally this morning celebrating the highlights?”

Clark keeps his eyes on the road and says nothing but gives a curt nod. Marcus focuses more on Clark, noticing the tension that presses Clark’s lips into a straight line and opens his eyes wide.

“Okay.” Marcus tries to ease the tension. “Then I won’t mention that if you drive slower — a lot slower.”

“Sorry. super-snailing isn’t one of my powers — ” Clark brakes. “Um — ”

“Well then maybe you should work on that; get that up to par with what ever else you have. I’m very disappointed in you right now. See? I’d rather not get to the hospital for as long as possible — the hospital where I get poked and prodded and asked a bazillion questions — and in a flimsy hospital gown that shows off my back and then some with any wrong move. I’m sure you understand.”

Honk honk! A car swerves to avoid them.

“Yeah,” Clark says. “I get it. I totally get it.”

“Because, the later we get there, the later someone at the hospital calls my uncle — and your parents.”

“You don’t want to call your uncle? But I thought the two of you were very close.”

“We are. I just want to deal with this — whatever this,” Marcus gestures to his legs and continues, “is — on my own. You’re close to your parents right? Wouldn’t you want to deal with what you have as much as you can on your own?”

“Well, yeah. But aren’t you scared?”

Marcus shrugs. “What do you do when your body starts acting weird?”

“Well . . . I try to figure out how it works — when it starts; when it stops; how to be careful with it; how to control it. I used to want my parents holding my hand through the process but not as much now.”

“So then you’re just like me.”

“I am?”

Honk honk! Another car swerves and passes by.

“I guess I better get this car moving and get you to the hospital . . . eventually. How’s five below the speed limit sound?”

“You’d still make all those cars honk. You willing to annoy all those cars speeding by?”

“Yeah, I think you deserve it.”

Marcus has been eyeing Clark the whole time and this whole time, the tension has never left Clark’s body from his face to his square shoulders and straight back.

“Thanks Clark. This means a lot to me.”

And here, finally, Clark lets go his posture with a deep exhale.

❀

Jonathan Kent rushes down the hospital hallway. “Clark!”

“Dad! In here!” Clark calls out and stands up from his seat next to Marcus.

“Hi, Mister Kent. I’m Marcus.”

With the introduction, Marcus makes no move to get out of the bed but the bed is adjusted to prop him up and he holds his hand out for a handshake. When their hands meet, Marcus feels his heart race with the tingle of a worry. But is this from his anticipation of the handshake or Mr. Kent’s worrying about his son?

“Dad? He says he’s fine. It’s um, a thing that happens.”

“It’s true Mr. Kent,” Marcus says. “It just happens. So Clark shouldn’t be sorry and you shouldn’t worry.” When Marcus’s heart slows down a bit and a dull ache begins to pain his legs with Mr. Kent’s exhale, he drops the handshake and has his answer.

“Well, it’s just . . . Well, okay. Sometimes I underestimate how much Clark knows his own weight.”

“Marcus!” The door opens again to reveal his uncle, Esca, Sid, Liathan and Cottia.

“Marcus! What happened?” his uncle asks him.

“Clark bumped into me. But I’m fine.”

“No Marcus. This . . . This is not fine. Dr. Patel says you can’t even feel your legs!”

“I’m fine! I already have feeling coming back to my legs.”

Despite the sheet over his legs, Marcus feels exposed with everyone staring at his legs. But while everyone is so sure that Marcus can’t move his legs, seeds of doubt begin to germinate in Marcus and he tries, with all his will, to move a toe — and millimeter by millimeter, it does. Even with the sheet covering his accomplishment, it’s big enough of a gesture for everyone to notice.

“See? I’m fine.”

“Wow, I’ve never been so impressed by a few millimeters. But hey, if that’s fine for you, then great!” Everyone turns to the open door to see Lois Lane who turns to Clark. “Chloe’s working late on The Torch again. Sent me over and expects a full report by tomorrow.”

“Oh god, you are just as nosy as that Chloe.” Sid says.

“Hey! ‘That Chloe’ is my cousin. Don’t you talk about her that way.”

“Ooh, a threat. I’m so scared.”

“Or I’ll give you a piece of my mind.”

“Sure! Why don’t you tell me what you really think of me!?” Sid then covers his mouth with both his hands. “Wait! No!”

“Too late! I’m gonna tell ya! You’re that cocky bastard in her debate class who thinks he’s better than everyone because he’s the best debater. Well, I got news for you, you future corporate lawyer wannabe. Do you dream of cooking up intellectual property laws to game world economies? ’Cause none of that makes you a better person! I’ll bet that pretentiously huge brand new yet scratched up black SUV is yours.”

“Nope, it’s not mine. And I’m a better person in the present tense than you, who almost ran over Procyon.”

“Wait. What?” Marcus’s uncle’s eyes widen. “That was you? You’re lucky only his tail got broken!”

“Okay Clark, time for us to speed on out of here!” Lois grabs Clark by the hand and pulls him to the door. Just before stepping out, Clark manages one last, “Talk to you later Marcus and see you at home Dad bye!”

“Well, I guess that’s my cue.” Jonathan moves towards the door.

“And I’ll walk you down.” Marcus’s uncle follows Jonathan after one last glance at the hospital room of teenagers.

“I like how you can’t turn off your powers,” Marcus says to Sid. “It’s hilarious.”

“I kinda don’t care what Chloe’s cousin thinks of me,” Sid says.

“Hey,” Liathan cuts in. “Between the car ride and his staying here, did you get to talk to Clark? Did you get a chance to ask about why he likes Lana so much? Do their dates really go something like, Lana says, ‘My parents are dead. I’m sad.’ and Clark then goes, ‘I’m sorry. Even though I have no reason to be’?”

“Nope,” Marcus answers. “We did more talking around than talking. I don’t think it’s a meteor rock infection but something’s definitely up. But so far, I trust him — seems like a nice guy.”

Sid sneers. “Yes, the nice guy who’s BFFs with Chloe who has databases of stuff on people like us. That Chloe who, when Cottia sent our letter to The Torch to replace ‘meteor freaks’ with ‘meteor-infected,’ responded with, ‘But they’re all freaks.’ Also, Clark is prolly worse than meteor-infected if you’re paralyzed.”

“He has a point Marcus,” Cottia says. “Chloe would change from mere annoyance to dangerous to you if she found out about you and Sid. And prolly also Esca and Liathan.”

“Guys! Clark has only been concerned about my safety since we bumped into each other this afternoon He’s sincere, I can feel it.” And as everyone’s eyebrows go up, Marcus continues, “I mean. Okay. I can’t feel a single emotion from him. But I have other senses and instincts too.”

“He’s also BFFs with Lex Luthor.”

“Luthor Corp. is why everyone has a job.”

“Luthor Corp. is why your parents lost their farm.” Esca glares at Marcus.

“Luthor Corp. is also why Esca lost his mother a year before the meteor shower,” Liathan points out. “You know Esca’s dad wasn’t the only one seeing more cancer happening in this town. But what do I know? All I hear is my parents worrying about their farms’ dropping yields year after year since that crap factory opened.” 

Beep! Cottia’s cell phone goes off. “Aunt Valaria wants me back; can you guys walk me home?”

“Don’t be a Luthor Corp. drone like your dad,” Liathan gets in one last point before he and Sid escort Cottia out.

❀

Once alone, Esca sits on the bed next to Marcus and holds his hand so he can feel the weight pulling down at his heart.

“Esca. Don’t worry about me. I’ll be out of here soon.”

“I know that; I’m not worried about that.” Esca squeezes Marcus’ hand a bit harder. “Stay away from Clark.”

“Well. yeah. We’re not going to be bestest friends now, not with what you and I have. But he’s letting me keep my secret.”

“ _I_ keep your secret.”

“No, this is different. He’s letting me keep my secret by not even asking me about it. You know how important that is.”

Esca nods. “Maybe all those doctors would’ve left you alone if they knew what really happened? How it really works? Why it works the way it works?”

“All that leads to your secret and that’s not mine to tell.”

But then Esca frowns. “You think Clark’s keeping your secret’ll last long with Chloe as one of his best friends?”

“Please. I don’t know Clark’s secret and I’m prolly a lot closer to it than Chloe — unless all the times I hear her ask him for it is a smokescreen of hers, but she’s not the kind to put up good smokescreens.”

“And what about his friendship with Lex? You know — the heir to the company that would’ve fired your dad before he died.”

“So?”

“No dealing with Clark. No dealing with the Luthors. You exist only for that dream of ours to own a farm and raise puppies.” 

“Okay okay.” Marcus grins and squeezes back Esca’s hand. “No dealing with Clark. No dealing with the Luthors. But no puppy until Chloe’s cousin leaves town — for good.”

❀

The coffee in the hospital cafeteria is only warm but that’s of no importance as Mr. Kent and Mr. Aquila will be there only a while until Martha Kent arrives to pick up Jonathan.

“Marlo.”

“Jonathan. What can I do for you?”

“Be honest with me. Are you scared? For your nephew?”

“Well, this has never happened before. And. Well. I suppose I panicked. I thought we had reached a point were we understood his condition’s triggers.” He stares down into his coffee. “But I supposed the human body never ceases to surprise even the most knowledgeable experts.”

“Hey, look. I’m sorry about this. If my son and I can do anything to make this right.”

“Oh don’t worry about that.” Looking up from his coffee, he assures the other man, “Marcus does seem to like Clark and he not suffer fools very easily.”

“Yeah. I guess I — or Clark — should take as a compliment that he let Clark stay by him. Your nephew: seems he has a gift for knowing how others feel.”

“A gift? . . . Well perhaps. But when pain is involved, it’s not a gift.”

“Is it just that? Is it just not being normal that’s a curse? . . . Sometimes, I wonder if my constant worrying about my son is also a curse; it’s how he feels.”

“Or maybe that’s them thinking they’re curses on us?” Marlo sets his cup down. “Maybe I should try something new. Just stop worrying. And enjoy his company for the sake of enjoying his company.”

Jonathan’s cell phone beeps but before he stands to leave he asks Marlo, “And you tell me how that works out?”

“Sure.” When the other man has left, Marlo quietly muses to himself, “Perhaps, the key to Marcus accepting his abilities as gifts is acting Marcus is a gift.”


	2. Chapter 2

A few days pass, each with increasing normalcy. By the end of the evening after he and Clark bumped into each other, Marcus’s legs have regained all feeling and by the morning, he is up and walking and the physician agrees that Marcus can check out, but not before pleading with them to be as aware as they can be about anything that might be amiss. Still, despite the doctor’s nagging, Marcus leaves the hospital in the afternoon with a smile on his face and a bounce in his step

But the morning after, a police car pulls up to the house’ driveway and Mr. Aquila — still in pajamas and bathrobe and house slippers, and with hair uncombed and wild — greets the police with questions.

“Have you found them?”

“Mr. Aquila sir, we found Esca . . . on a road and naked and shot with a tranquilizer. My partner called for an ambulance and is with him right now.”

At the site, Esca is wrapped in a blanket, arguing with EMTs.

“I’m fine! I’m not going to the hospital!”

“But you were found naked on the road! Anything could’ve happened.”

“And that’s for me to know and not you until I say so! I’ll go when I decide to go!”

“I’ll take him home,” Mr. Aquila cuts in.

“But sir . . .”

“He wants to go home, I’ll take him home. If he decides he needs hospital care, then I’ll be the first to bring him.”

“Um, okay sir. But you can expect the police back there soon to question him.”

Once in the car, Esca is hyper, recalling the previous night’s events.

“I woke up because Procyon was whimpering and you know how he can sleep through a tornado. I went into Marcus’s room and they were already loading him into an SUV. So I ran. I wolfed out but then they shot me with something!”

“It’s okay. Just tell the police what you saw, don’t mention wolfing out, and hopefully they can find him soon.”

“I dunno.” Esca looks out the car window. “The SUV didn’t have tags. And I didn’t hear Marcus struggling. I think they were pros. Why would professional kidnappers target Marcus?”

“I . . .” Mr. Aquila’s eyes begin to gloss over but do not spill; however his hands tremble on the steering wheel. “I don’t know.”

Still looking out the window, Esca begins to plot. Round up Sid, Liathan and Cottia. Sid and Liathan to approach Chloe while he and Cottia look around the house and neighborhood for tracks older than a day.

❀

When Marcus wakes, he is in the center of a dimly lit room — well, dimly lit by a single lightbulb above. The door is metal, with a small barred window. The walls are made of concrete, with inlaid meteor rock and Marcus swears that even his smallest movements towards them make them glow brighter in concert with the pain in his legs from being closer to them.

 _So this is what Luthor Corp. does with all that meteor rock,_ Marcus thinks to himself.

Marcus already feels exposed being dead center in the room and that’s before he realizes he’s been stripped down to his underwear — there’s nothing but mere threads between him and the meteor rocks, and whoever will enter the room.

Marcus can’t tell how much time passes but eventually someone does.

Long before they even approach, Marcus can begin to feel pain slightly grow in his legs. Yet he can also feel his face wanting to chin up and his back straighten. He also feels lighter and, somehow, shielded and guarded. Even with the distance between him and the approaching person, each step they take closer brightens the meteor rocks which intensify Marcus’s pain; each step closer is another threat to overwhelm Marcus.

A woman — soft black leather gloves; vibrant red hair; tailored black suit; tailored purple silk shirt; polished black leather shoes; and tall posture from self-confidence, definitely not the other way around. Anyone who had no clue for Lionel or Lex Luthor could easily assume her to be the CEO of Luthor Corp.

“Marcus Aquila?” Without taking off her gloves, she holds her right hand out. “Tess Mercer. You can call me Tess.”

“Yeah that’s me.” Marcus keeps his eyes on her but doesn’t move. “And what’s your position at Luthor Corp., Ms. Mercer?”

“You have no reason to assume Luthor Corp.”

“Who else systematically collects meteor rocks? I’m lame, not blind.”

“Smart cookie.”

Tess takes off her gloves, and drops them onto the bed next to Marcus’s right hand all the while keeping focused on him and letting only the slightest twist peek out from one of the corners of her lips. She shouldn’t take satisfaction in Marcus trying to sink deeper into the bed away from her, but how could she not? And how could she not sit on the cot as close to him as possible without even a single thread of her clothes touching him.

“I hope to count on your cooperation. You want to go to home don’t you? I know I’d love to go home to my family — ”

“Liar.” Marcus stares her in the eye. A split second downward turn of the corners of her lips and the widening and glossing over of her eyes would be imperceptible to most people — but only most people. “You fear your family.”

“Feared, past tense.” Tess stays in her position. “That’s very good for someone who I assume has no special training. Naturally talented lie detectors disproportionately come from abusive backgrounds — survival depends on being able to read the abusers’ moods accurately. But what about you? Raised with loving parents and a loving uncle? But I suppose an empath with physical manifestations of said ability would have a need to determine if someone’s touch means the difference between pain in pleasure vs pure pain.”

“What do you want from me?”

“Nothing.”

“As in nothing . . . yet.”

“No really. This has nothing to do with you. You just happened to be in close proximity to a subject my employer is interested in. He’ll be asking you about that encounter when he gets here.”

“Please.” Marcus rolls his eyes. “Nothing happened to me . . .”

“Nothing happened to you . . . except . . .” Ms. Mercer coaxes more out of Marcus.

“Clark.”

“Who’s Clark?”

“You have to promise me nothing will happen to him.”

“That’s not my decision to make.”

“At least promise me you’ll meet him first.”

“I won’t force you to do anything you don’t want to — ”

“No. You’ll just seduce me into it.”

“Quite perceptive. Now, tell me who’s Clark.”

“Local high school football hero. There. There’s nothing else to say.”

“Nothing? My employer doesn’t take an interest in mundane things — or people — especially not for years. There’s nothing ordinary about Clark. And I distinctly heard him say you must know that. And you should know why.”

“Your boss hangs around high school kids. That’s creepy. And you obviously went through my medical records too if you know how my empathy works. That, too, is creepy.”

“You’re an empath. Clark is extraordinary. You’re a smart cookie; you do the math.”

“The way you’re doing the math because your boss, Lex Luthor, has told you some things but not everything. Well. Be prepared to be disappointed. I felt nothing.”

“Well, that’s different. You’ve always felt something.”

“How much do you know? How far back did you go?”

“To the beginning. The very beginning. It’s your story. Do you want to tell it?”

Tess brings a hand up to Marcus’s face and he flinches back, or he tries to move backwards into the bed. But she stops just shy of of his skin and follows the curves of his profile, tracing an invisible shield over it. 

“What is there to talk about?” Marcus stares at her hand just millimeters above his skin, the hand that could touch him with just the slightest wrong move by either of them. Keeping still, he continues, “Football practice just ended. I told my parents that I would take a ride to the Homecoming Game with Esca and his parents.”

“And where was Esca?”

“Running.” A tear falls. “Running away. And I was running after him.”

“And you never found him. He found you only after you’d been hit by a meteor.”

Marcus nods.

“And that’s when it started. When he found you and he tried to bring you out of the pile of meteor rocks. The pain in your legs started there.” The hand that Tess traced starting at Marcus’s head and down to his chest is now at his heart, lingering there, hovering over. “You thought you wanted to know Esca and then Esca touched you . . .”

“No.” Marcus’s voice cracks as he pleads. “No. Please. It’s not my secret to reveal. Please.”

“No it isn’t. But anyone can read between the lines if they look.” And with that, Tess nods Marcus to go on.

“It hurt so bad. It hurt so bad, I just wanted the pain somewhere else, anywhere else. I got it down to my legs.”

“ ‘It.’ ” Tess simply says as she tilt her head. “The notes said, ‘felt as if being split open from the inside.’ Was it a curse that the male doctor who wrote that note about pain below the waist didn’t ask anymore questions at that?”

“Dunno.” Marcus shrugs.

“Deep in your heart . . .” The heart which Marcus feels beat slower yet stronger betrays the coolness in Ms. Mercer’s voice. “You know there was no justice for Esca — from the doctor who did not see any duty to the law to Coach Beppo dying randomly in a car crash.”

“Does it matter how? He’s dead. No one has to worry about him anymore.” Marcus tilts his head. “Why? What would you do?”

“Pray that I never meet anyone who gives me reason to bash his face in and obliterate his identity from the face of the earth.” Ms. Mercer presses her hand a hair closer to Marcus’s heart. “You feel it with all your heart; this is the justice Beppo deserved.”

Marcus takes his sight off Ms. Mercer’s face and glances down to her hand above yet promising to press against his heart. Making eye contact with her again, he nods resolutely. “Yes. Yes it is.”

“Fate kills off the insignificant. Destiny deals the great ones.” Tess lifts her hand away from Marcus’s heart. “Fate killed Beppo as the little coward he was. But it should have been Esca’s destiny to kill him. Or . . . yours?”

“No. Esca’s.”

“And what would you do for Esca? What would you do to give him the life he wants?”

“Anything.”

Tess nodes and presses against Marcus’s heart.

“No!” Marcus gasps. She already knew how his being an empath works. She already knew Esca’s secret past. What she wanted was someone — something — with which to hold Marcus.

❀

Another Sunday at The Torch but Chloe beams that at least the next issue was going out just in time for tomorrow’s homeroom. She’s just about to enter her car when its door is slammed shut by someone behind her.

“Sid!” And behind him was a very threatening looking, “Liathan!”

“Chloe . . .” Sid and Liathan say in unison.

“Tell me what you know about Marcus.” Sid gets to the point.

“I don’t have to tell you anything.”

“What do you know about Marcus?”

Chloe lets out a long deep breath and her eyes narrow.

“See. That look on your face? It tells me you know how my abilities work. But I want to hear it from you. So. Tell me. And what do you know about Marcus?”

Chloe looks away before she answers, “Empath. Your emotions correlate to the pain he feels in his legs. No one knows why. Me neither, it’s a really weird power to have.”

“What else do you know about him?”

“He and Esca like each other. As in they’re boyfriends into each other. And that’s it.”

Then she faces Sid again to rant at him. “You know what? I had nothing to do with his kidnapping. Nothing.”

“No. Actually. You did. Cottia always said that if you know about me or Marcus, you’re be a danger to us. And you know what — ”

“I have done nothing — ”

“Except you did! If you spent even a single second thinking about Marcus and Esca, you’d know that they’d been spending most nights together. The one night they didn’t and what happens?”

“I didn’t have anything to do with that?”

“Except how did the kidnappers know Esca was no longer in Marcus’s room!? Esca didn’t turn on any lights as he left and all the bedroom curtains were drawn.”

“And,” Liathan cuts in. “The only way to know was through my and Esca’s instant messenger logs because we IM’d each other once he was alone. And who would knows to hack computers like that? Hm?”

“Well, I’m sorry.” Chloe gives Liathan a shove with her palm. “I’m good with security so whoever did this was a pro.”

“Fine,” says Sid. “Then you’re going to use your hacking-into-Luthor-Corp skills to help us find Marcus. And that’s how you’ll prove you’re sorry.”

“No way! Luthors are dangerous. I’m not putting myself in any more danger than I have to!”

“Then damn you, Chloe.” Sid shoves his pointed finger at Chloe. “Damn you to hell because your very existence — all your snooping and intel gathering, all without consent or even reasonable suspicion — is a danger to us. Your spying on Esca and Marcus got Marcus kidnapped. And if you had any decency, then you’d at least want to right that wrong.”

“But,” Liathan smirks. “If you don’t, then we can always tell Clark all the spying you’ve been up to if you don’t help us. And, believe us when we say: We will undeniably name your name.”

“Damn you! Fine! I’ll help you! But damn you!”

“Lastly,” Sid says. “What do you know about me?”

Chloe faces Sid again and rolls her eyes. “I know it works by you asking questions. They have to answer you with the truth. And it has something to do with you being unhappy with your parents having affairs. Are you so starved for attention you have to ask about yourself?”

“Actually. No. I’m the control.”

“What?”

“No one can tell a truth they do not know, only a truth they believe.”

“What?”

“How much what you believe about me is true might correlate to how much what you believe about Marcus is true.”

“What? No way. What I know is true.”

“And I’m glad you get as little as you do. And you might want to check your ego. Just because you believe it doesn’t make it so.” Sid’s eyes narrow. “Now help us. And if you’re as sharp as you think you are, you’ll get more of the truth.”

❀

Still inside the holding cell, still with Tess beside him, Marcus still lies on the cot and stares at the ceiling as the pain subsides.

“Explain what you mean by ‘anything,’ ” Tess asks.

“Just what it means.”

“Anything to make him safe? Or . . . Anything to make him _feel_ safe?”

“ ‘And’ anything to make him feel safe. No point in being safe if you don’t feel it right?”

“Can you really not imagine being safe and yet not feeling it? I’m sure Esca could help you with that.”

“ _You._ Don’t talk about Esca.”

“Did I uncover a chasm between the two of you? Once upon a time, all you wanted was to know what he was going through. But knowing the physical pain isn’t the same as knowing the emotional toll, am I right?”

“I said don’t talk about Esca.”

“But I’m not. I’m talking about Esca and _you._ ”

Then his skin begins to prickle and a pain begins to ache in his legs.

Beep! The sound pierces the room from Tess’s front pocket. And when she glances at the phone’s screen, she nods.

“Lex has just arrived and he’s outside.”

Marcus doesn’t respond to her. But as a few moments pass, the prickling and aching turn to pressure. What begins as a feeling of his body in a slight squeeze escalates in a few moments to an awful grip as if every inch of his body were pinched. And the feeling continues to intensify.

 _Oh no,_ Marcus thinks to himself. _He’ll be here soon. And then what?_

By the time Lex stands outside the door, the pain is crushing. But as the door opens and Lex steps in — immaculate grey suit with lavender shirt and dark grey gloves and the pain lightens. Marcus’s whole body lightens and his heart warms a little as Lex moves towards Tess and shakes her hand.

 _Nothing below the belt,_ Marcus notes to himself as he looks at Lex and Tess. Tess’s command of business through seductive interrogation is nothing different from what he has noticed all along. But Lex is different and Marcus sees how he smiles warmly at Tess. _So? . . . It’s very platonic?_

“Anything?” Lex asks Tess.

“Not on Clark Kent but he knows why he’s here. Also: He’s given up enough of his own secrets to have a place to start with him.”

Lex then turns to Marcus. “So you know what I want. Just tell me what you felt with Clark Kent.”

“You know, it’s creepy for an adult male to be so obsessed with a high school boy.”

“The sooner you tell me, the sooner you can go back to your family. You’d do anything for your family, wouldn’t you?”

And there, Marcus sees the relation between Lex and Tess as Lex tilts his head just so slightly to her behind him and it’s the smallest split of a second but it’s there — his warm smile for her.

“Sure,” Marcus answers. “Once I openly call them family, doing anything for them is the only logical step, isn’t it? Mr. Luthor? See, I’ve already explained my loyalties to Ms. Mercer. But if she can’t understand that concept, maybe you’re the one to explain that to her.”

“Marcus,” Tess begins her warning. “Don’t.”

“Don’t what? I felt nothing from Clark therefore I have nothing to say.”

“You felt nothing from Clark Kent?” Lex asks, taking his gloves off. “You mean to tell me that you felt absolutely nothing at all?”

“Nothing.” Marcus glares at Lex, but pangs of regret begin to form as the squeezing pain returns.

 _If only Clark where here,_ Marcus thinks to himself as the pain intensifies. _Just anything to not have to feel this._

“If only everyone were so lucky as you,” Lex says as he reaches for Marcus. On contact, Marcus struggles to breath as the crushing pain overwhelms him but not before his heart struggles to beat as a unit, its two halves beating independently of the other as if they had split.

Then blackness.

❀

“So, I’ve narrowed it down to three locations.” Chloe stares at a computer screen — zooming into a map with three red dots and a number of blue ones — avoiding Cottia, Esca, Sid and Liathan as much as she can. “Blue dots are suspicious but not as secluded as the red dots.”

“Narrow it down even more,” Cottia says.

“Hey. Just because you’re pissy that I ignored that letter to the editor that you wrote, doesn’t mean you get to boss me around to put my life in danger.”

“Correction: Just because you ignored the letter to the editor that I and four others wrote does mean we get to dictate terms to you especially when your bigotry gets one of us kidnapped. And how do you know which ones are secluded or not?”

“Unlike you, I did my own surveillance on these properties, because _I_ wanted to,” Chloe says at Cottia as Cottia glares even harder. “I can guess that the Three Oaks facility is the most likely to be the one Marcus is in.”

“Because?”

“The Three Oaks one is where the longest running regional VP is; fifteen years is a long time.”

“Something's off,” Sid says. “Who’s running the Miller’s creek facility?”

“A . . . T. Mercer. But they’ve been with the company only one year and they’ve transferred over to that facility in the past month. I’m telling you, it doesn’t make sense to go there. Luthors don’t trust anyone, especially not someone who’s been with the company for such a short time.”

“And you’ve ruled out the Cornsilk Valley facility because?”

“You have all my surveillance photos and the building plans I got from City Hall so you can see for yourself. The structural upgrades there are only almost done, unlike the others which have been done for a while. So, that narrows it down to two. And I have a much better feeling for one over the other. Can I go now?”

“Yeah, sure.” Liathan opens the door.

“I still think we go after the Miller’s Creek facility,” Sid says once Chloe is gone. “Luthors don’t trust anyone but how does someone only a year older than Lex get to be a regional VP with only one year in the company? It’s kinda like, how does a 21 year old college screw-up get to manage a crap factory? They’re either really really good or family — or both.”

“Well, great,” says Liathan looking at blueprints on the screen. “The Miller’s Creek place has an underwater entrance. I can get myself and one other person in real quick. And Sid says being a selkie is useless in Kansas.”

Esca, too, looks over the blueprints. “And once I’m in, I’m fairly sure I can wolf out and scare people away.”

“Or get tranq’d like last time?” Sid asks.

“No. This time, no one even gets to think before I’ll be on them.”

❀

When Marcus comes to, the room is empty and the meteor rocks don’t glow any brighter than when he first woke up in this room. He breathes easily and his heart beats normally now and there’s no pain of any kind except for what he has already felt at the beginning of this imprisonment. But the barred window is blocked with a metal panel making it more difficult to hear anything going on outside.

Marcus lies as still as he can with his breathing as even and quiet as he can get it so the only sounds in the room are from the outside. And that’s when he hears them — footsteps on this level but faint with the distance between him and them. Their rhythm is slow and steady, like the drum corps at a football game beating out a menacing tension. Pain begins to tingle in his legs as the muscles in the rest of the body begin to feel tightly wound up, ready to spring.

 _Who are you?_ Marcus asks himself as each drawn out footstep drags along building pain and tension in Marcus’s body. _If you don’t belong here, don’t be so tentative!_

“Hey!”

Marcus hears a familiar teen girl’s voice once the footsteps arrive at the door and it’s — Chloe’s cousin.

“Hey! It’s me, Lois Lane. We met at the hospital. I’m gonna get you out — ”

“Lois?” asks another voice. “What are you doing here?”

“Clark?” Lois asks. “I asked about an SUV. What are _you_ doing here?”

“I . . . um . . .” Clark mumbles. But to Marcus it sounds almost like the words “other place” and “ran here” got lost before they hid in Clark’s mouth.

Just then, a dripping wet Esca arrives, chased by two security guards. As they approach, Lois grabs one and exchanges punches with him before knocking him out. Meanwhile, Clark knocks out the other one into a wall.

“There’s another security watch station in this building, but it’s on the top floor. We need to get Marcus out now — ”

“I’m going to meet them,” Lois says as she moves towards the end of the hall. “I’m gonna try to stave them off, give you time to figure out that door.”

“Lois!” Clark moves after her. “Lois, wait!”

“My car’s parked by the south fence. I know which emergency staircase has views of it. If I see you at my car, I’ll meet you there!” And with that, Lois is gone, Clark with her.

“Marcus.” Esca eyes the door. “I’m getting you out.”

“Careful with the meteor rocks,” Marcus says. “They make my disability stronger.”

Esca lays his hand on the door handle. And with a sharp twist, breaks it off and the door opens. “Marcus!”

As Marcus lays on the cot almost naked, Esca feels his blood boil. _How dare anyone do this to Marcus._

“Esca. Don’t. I can barely move with all these meteor rocks intensifying everything.”

“I’ll get you out.” Esca brings himself to support Marcus. But his support barely helps him as he collapses with every stray flash of Esca’s anger at whoever did this to Marcus.

“Come on!” Esca urges. He scans the room, mentally scanning the blueprints he’s studied all night when he feels Marcus support himself a little bit. “I know how to get us — ”

“You’re not going anywhere.” Tess stands in the door and blocks the two boys. “Are you Esca? Well, I’m not sorry but I can’t let you take Marcus.”

“You let us go or else,” Esca warns.

“Or else what?” Tess shrugs. “Or else Marcus might not be the only one we’re interested in?”

“If you know all the reasons you have to be interested in me then you know exactly why you are in no position to negotiate for your life.”

“Why?” Tess smirks. “Because you’d make it look like a wolf attack? Well come on and attack me then. You know you want to. You’d never reveal yourself as a wolf to another person. But here I am now, offering you your chance to let out everything you’ve ever wanted to.”

“You should be careful about your intel.” Esca braces himself as Marcus begins to collapse. “Unreliable sources distort half truths into lies.”

“I do due diligence very thoroughly. Even if you can’t trust the source of your data, you can still trust the data as long as you trust yourself and your own instincts.”

Esca’s blood is boiling now, boiling three times as much as when he first laid eyes on Marcus and the meteor rocks in the walls are glowing brighter than he’s ever seen any of them glow and he eases Marcus back onto the cot before letting him go.

“You’re in no position to negotiate for your life. And you — ” Ms. Mercer turn her attention from Esca to Marcus and steps closer. “You’re in no position to negotiate for your freedom. But I can give it to you.” 

“We’ll take nothing from a Luthor!” Esca glares at Tess.

“I am not a Luthor.”

“I don’t care that you believe you’re not a Luthor,” Marcus says. “You still are.”

“I don’t need to be a Luthor. How much have you planned for the redundancies in place? Even with all the cameras in this building already torched, I’ll still know where you are. Even if you already got through these two security guards and the other two in this building, would you get past the reinforcements on their way?”

Marcus and Esca exchange worried glances.

“But, I could let you out.”

“For what?” Marcus says.

“I — not Luthor Corp., not Lex Luthor — own 1,500 acres, land for you to do whatever you want.”

“No.”

“You’ll work for the land. Someday you’ll own it.”

“No. I know how you Luthors work.”

“You have choices. And they’re either stay here — ”

“You mean be a prisoner here.”

“Or leave and go.”

“Your land, your terms. That’s still not freedom. There’s no freedom in either choice.”

Marcus tries to stand up from the cot but Esca is the one supporting him completely. Despite Esca on the verge of collapsing under him, Marcus stares across into Tess’s eyes. “Clark Kent.”

“What about Clark Kent?”

“You do nothing to him until you meet him face-to-face.”

“You gotta give me a reason to.”

Once fully upright, Marcus stares down Ms. Mercer. “Do you want me in here or out there?”

Tess makes her way forward until she is standing over them and points a finger to Marcus’s face; she stops just millimeters from his skin.

“Fine,” Tess says. “I’ll do no harm to him until I meet him. But, I’ll go even further than that and you will owe me.”

And with that, Tess turns her back and leaves.

When she’s out of sight, Marcus and Esca break for it as fast as they can. But there are many similar rooms on this level and each room’s meteor rocks glow green as Marcus, with all his weight on Esca, passes by until — 

At every door, a panel rises to seal off its window. And Marcus, with his weight still on Esca, can feel the pain there but lessening.

 _It should’t be that easy; that’s not how meteor rocks work,_ Marcus thinks to himself. And yet it is. Whatever those panels are made of, they’re blocking the effects of the meteor rocks and Marcus can support himself and he and Esca can finally run for it.

❀

Stars shine with the new moon as Esca and Marcus rush to the car. In near darkness , Marcus has trouble holding onto Esca’s hand as stones and twigs dig into his feet; branches and brush cut across his skin; Esca’s adrenaline rush makes his heart beat too fast. But Esca’s worry and panic mean a warm and pulsing ache in Marcus’s legs and as long as he has that — that pain that slows him down and grounds him; that pain that is the message in his body that he still has Esca — he can keep holding onto Esca and keep moving forward as Esca navigates them through the dark toward tiny glints of glass and metal and the growing waft of gasoline.

“They’re not here,” Marcus says.

“If they’re not here at the first sign of someone coming after us, do I go back in to get them or do we break into the car and drive off?” Esca asks as he turns on his cell.

“Clark is strong, I think?” Marcus isn’t so sure but he’d like to have more confidence in his hunches about Clark’s powers with the messages he sees Esca sending.

> `we have a car`
> 
> `luthor corp reinforcement security coming`
> 
> `get out asap`

Marcus tilts his head so his ear is towards the building and he can make out some vague bickering between a teenage boy and girl.

“They’re fine, Lois. I saw them with my own eyes.”

“In near darkness? Are you sure?”

“You hear that?” Marcus asks Esca.

“It means we don’t have to break into our ride home.”

When Clark and Lois arrive at the car, they’re still bickering.

“Look, see?” Lois points to Marcus and Esca. “They’re okay. But are _you_ okay?”

“I’m fine.”

“You looked really sick for a few moments there?”

“But it stopped.”

“Suddenly.”

“Hey,” Esca intervenes. “Marcus is kinda cold and for all we know, reinforcements are still coming. Can we go? Now?”

❀

The ride home is uneventful except for some more bickering.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Lois asks Clark.

“I’m fine.” Clark rolls his eyes.

“Because you were so keeled over until all the door windows closed.”

“I’m fine. And what about you? Lois, you would have been alone against four guys.”

“I took two of them down. If you weren’t there, I’d’ve taken the other two also.”

“Do I want to ask what kind of trouble you got into growing up on all those army bases?”

Marcus and Esca exchange glances before Marcus leans forward to ask, “Are you two dating?”

“NO!” And now Clark and Lois are in unison.

“Is that what you think of us?” Clark asks.

“Why would you think such horrible things about us?” Lois asks.

“Oh, I’m sorry.” Marcus laughs. “That wasn’t worry for each other you two had?”

“Lois has a ‘jump first, ask later’ attitude to, well, everything.”

“And Smallville here is . . .” Lois points to Clark and gets a dreamy look to her eye but then shakes herself out of it and looks into her rearview mirror. “Okay he’s not small! But Smallville is Smallville. Speaking of small — ”

Lois pulls the car over to the side of the road and before getting out says, “You need clothes.”

Clark follows her out to the trunk of her car before he lets out a laugh. “Wow, warn me before you put any of these on. Is there some fetish for dressing up you want to explain?”

“What, you never heard of ‘be prepared’? There goes my boy scout theory of you.”

“A bikini, a nurse outfit, and an ’80s power suit prepare you for what exactly, hm?”

Clark takes off his red jacket and goes back into the car to give it to Marcus and says, “But don’t get your hopes up for appropriate bottoms. There’s nothing in Lois’s trunk that’s appropriate — for men or women.”

“Skirt with elastic waist.” Lois yells from behind her trunk. “Should stretch enough to fit him, right?”

When she’s back in the driver’s seat, she throws the skirt back to Marcus and says, “Don’t worry. I won’t perv out on you. If I wanted to, I already would’ve.”

“Good,” Esca says. “Because I’d remind you I’m his boyfriend.”

“Ha,” Lois laughs. “You can come at me anytime.”

❀

DING DONG!

At the doorbell’s ring, old Procyon lies in his bed, head down but ears pricked up while Cottia sits on her hands on the couch with Sid and Liathan beside her, their hands reaching for each other. Then Marcus’s uncle opens the door.

“Marcus!” Tears start streaming down the old man’s face as he pulls his nephew into the house to give him a hug. “I thought I’d never see you again!” The hug lingers for a few moments before he also pulls in Esca for a hug. “Dear gods, Esca. What you did was dangerous.”

“But I had to,” Esca says, tears streaming down his face too. “Marcus was missing, so I had to.”

When the three of them plus Cottia, Sid, Liathan, and even Procyon who’s ambled over are in a group hug, Lois quietly closes the front door and she and Clark make their way to her car.

“I’d say that went well,” Lois says. “Has to if even you have a goofy grin on your face.”

“I’d say it went well if you’re happy yet not too smug.” Clark grins back at her.

❀

The next morning, Esca and Marcus sit side-by-side on the couch with Procyon’s head on Esca’s lap and Marcus reaching over to scritch Procyon’s head. When Marcus sees a car pull up the sidewalk, he gets up, gets a plastic bag of clothes and heads out to meet the car and hands over the bag when Clark rolls down the window.

“On another date?” Marcus smirks at Clark and Lois.

“Not dating!” Clark and Lois are in sync before they turn to glare at each other.

“For two people not dating, you two spend a lot of time together. It’s almost like you two live together.”

“Please. If I ever move in with Clark, put me out of my misery.”

“And mine.” Clark rolls his eyes. “Thanks for the clothes. Now I don’t have to listen to Lois worrying about you stretching out the skirt.”

“Was that part of the nurse’s costume?” Marcus asks. “Because Uncle thought it was ‘obscenely short.’ ”

“It’s part of a lot of things.” Lois says. “Unlike you, I have the perfect figure for it.”

“But the jacket fit perfectly,” Marcus says.

“Then you should keep it.” Lois tugs at Clark’s blue t-shirt. “Maybe then he’d wear another jacket.”

“Like his letterman jacket?” Marcus asks.

“Would you have wanted to wear that?” Clark asks.

“Nah.” Marcus says. “That letterman jacket’s yours; you earned it. But if Lois doesn’t remind you to wear it for school events — and future reunions — then maybe I should.”

“Yeah okay. Let me give you my contact info.”

“Sure; my cell phone is in my room.”

They wave to Esca as they pass by and once in Marcus’s room, Clark notices the perched golden eagle and asks, “Is that the guard to your fortress?”

“Every fort should have eyes and ears right?” Marcus tosses his cell phone to Clark. And as Clark types in his contact info, Marcus asks, “So . . . Seeing in the dark is one of your abilities?”

“Um, not exactly.”

Marcus raises an eyebrow.

“More like, it’s x-ray vision — which is not heat vision.”

Now both Marcus’s eyebrows are up.

“Um . . . But, yeah, the x-ray vision, I can use that to, um, see in the dark.”

“You should’ve used that on my legs that day and saved yourself a lot of panic.”

“I guess. Um . . .”

“If I had known, I would’ve asked you. Better you than others. You can guess why right? So would you have?”

“Yeah.”

“Good. And I’ll tell you now that when you carried me to my car, it’s not totally true that I felt nothing. Truth is, I felt like I was flying.”

“Flying? That’s great.” Clark begins to feel uneasy in his stomach.

“You look like you’re gonna hurl? You don’t think that’s great?”

“Me and flying? Not a thing that’s gonna happen.” Clark’s eyes widen in fear.

Marcus laughs. “That’s too bad. If you don’t ever get over your fear, then you don’t. But if you do, I hope you find it awesome? Okay?”

And with that, Marcus takes his phone back and the two go outside. Back at the car, Marcus turns to Lois and says, “By the way, Uncle wants to invite the both of you to dinner, kinda a small thanks for helping to save me.”

“Sure,” Lois says. “As long as you and Esca are there to protect Clark from me, we’ll both be there.”

“We’ll be there,” Clark says. “Just let us know when. But really. It’s too generous. Just stay safe, okay?”

“Sure.”

Marcus waves Clark and Lois goodbye and before going back into the house, he checks the mailbox where there is only a lone envelope. On the front, it is addressed merely to:

> Marcus F. Aquila

And on the back:

> T. Mercer

It’s a few moments that Marcus spends staring at the envelope until Esca comes up beside him.

“Cottia thinks Ms. Mercer’s the one driving the sports car with the license plate, NO MERCY. Are you really going to accept her terms?”

“I owe her for Clark.”

“Do you really believe that Marcus?”

“No. But she does.”


	3. Chapter 3

A few months later under the summer solstice sun, Marcus and Esca stand on a hill and survey over the land that is theirs to till, plow, and farm — “cultivate” as Ms. Mercer would call it.

Below them, corn stalks lay flattened. Once vibrant and verdant stalks that leapt from the ground to the eye now sink and disappear into the ground as green meteor rocks assert their glow as toxic blemishes, their green pulse threatening to spread across even more land especially when Marcus passes by.

“Mr. Aquila? Mr. McCunoval?” A man has approached them from behind and he is backed by a van filled with men in blue heavy cotton jumpsuits, except for the one behind the wheel dressed in a black business suit. The man approaches Marcus with his hand out for a handshake but Marcus keeps his hand back behind his defenses.

“Are you the crew from Luthor Corp.?” Marcus asks.

“Yes, Sir,” the man answers. “We have orders to start with the plot of land behind the house. It’s top priority for Ms. Mercer.”

“Of course.”

“Reckon it’ll take a day or so?”

“Will you clear out all the meteor rocks?”

“We’ll clear out as much as we do,” says the suited man behind the wheel.

Marcus turns his back to them all. “I don’t mind you; you don’t mind me. You go on then.”

The men leave and once they are at the house — with Marcus and Esca out of their earshot — Marcus asks, “Is it wrong to want another meteor shower to rain on them if they don’t clear out all the meteor rocks?”

“More meteor rocks would only mean more power for Luthor Corp.,” Esca points out. “But don’t worry. We’ll pick up what they don’t. This land will be clean and spotless of meteor rocks before we start farming it.”

“And the plot for the greenhouse?”

“That little plot larger than the house’s plot, especially that. I promise you. What do I keep telling you?”

“ ‘Screw authority.’ ”

And with that, Esca smiles to himself.

❀

“So. You and Marcus settled into your new home yet?” Liathan asks as he and Esca walk down a street in town before he notices The Talon across the street. “Hey, wanna go into The Talon and get some coffee?”

“Nah, I’m good.”

“Okay.” Liathan shrugs. “And your new home?”

“Let’s be real. Marcus and I have a house — not a home.” Esca sighs. “Though I guess I like the change from old man Aquila’s house to Luthor property. I mean, I don’t think his old man ever stopped seeing me as the kid at the refugee shelter clinging to Marcus or as the kid who had unexplained nightmares for years. Oh. But then. Luthor property.”

“And here I was liking the symmetry of your living with Marcus and his old man because of the first meteor shower and you moving out because of this second one.”

“If you want symmetry, I’m moving to the new place because of Luthors — ”

“I thought you said she’s only a regional VP?”

“Yeah, but she high enough to directly work for the company’s interests which works for the Luthors’ interests.” Esca shrugs. “Anyways. Moving now because of Luthors. How about we find a way to blame them for the first one too? My dad swore Lionel Luthor was making deals left and right to bring the destruction of the town.”

Liathan laughs. “Dad does say that if your old man were still alive? Together they’d expose a bunch of Luthor Corp. crap.”

❀

“The greenhouse will be twice as big as the house?” Sid looks outside the kitchen window. “That says everything about what she thinks of you.”

“Yeah it does.” Marcus pours iced sweet tea for the both of them.

“That’s it? That’s all you have to say? ‘Yeah it does’?”

“If you have a plan any of us can execute against a multi-billion dollar family and their corporate empire worth dozens of times that, I’d love to hear it.”

Sid frowns. “What does she want you to do?”

“Take care of flowers for her.”

“That’s it?” Sid’s eyes narrow. “That sounds suspiciously easy.”

“Wanna hear how dangerous they are?”

“No. You’re gonna geek out on all that farming stuff I don’t care about.”

“Don’t get pricked by the thorns. Once won’t kill you but too many times could give you a heart attack.”

“Really? So . . . How will you not get killed by heart-breaking flowers?”

“Leather — thick hide — between me and them.”

❀

“You should leave him,” Liathan says as they walk back. “Leave him before you compete with her for him.”

“Why shouldn’t I compete with her? She has no chance.” 

“Famous last words of everyone who dared challenge a Luthor. Or, well someone high enough at Luthor Corp. Aren’t you cocky.

“I’m cocky because Marcus is mine.”

“Whatever, she still sounds very powerful in her own way. Teaching Marcus to flip-off authority? No problem. Teaching him to flip-off power? No way, never.”

“Easier than teaching you to submit to me.”

“Screw you!”

“Nope. You never did.”

❀

“You know? Graduation was supposed to be about ascension,” Sid says while looking down to the bottom of his glass of almost finished tea. “And the irony of our graduation was that it got rained on by another meteor shower.”

Marcus raises an eyebrow. “The symbolism of our graduation is more important than the decade of rebuilding from the last one completely wiped out? and the lives lost?”

“You know what I mean. The point is — ” Sid gulps down the last of his tea. “Graduation should be about more than just moving on; it should be about moving on to better.

“Take me for example. Liathan and I are going to Metropolis U. where we’re going to major in business. After that, we’re going to some three-year grad program and get our law and business degrees.

“But what about you? You and Esca are gonna be stuck on a farm.”

“Wow, Sid!” Marcus pounds his fist on the table and Sid flinches — not enough for him to admit to it but enough for Marcus to notice. “Tell me what you think. Tell me what you _really_ think.”

“I just think that you would be better off with someone else.”

“And that someone else would be you?” Marcus asks. And when Sid nods, he continues, “Ms. Mercer wants me to be here. So while Esca can sorta choose to be a farmer, _you_  — who thinks farming is more painful than watching paint dry — would be completely stuck here . . . Unless you get a thrill out of matching wits with Luthor Corp. execs.”

“I’m a good tactician!”

Marcus shakes his head no. “You need a hell of a lot more than ‘good’ to go up against her.”

❀

“Esca!”

The sun is still high in the summer evening yet Marcus still recognizes the time for what it is — moments before the sunset. And as Marcus rushes over to the property fence, Esca takes in the sight of him with the new red jacket over his brown t-shirt. The new jacket is a lot like Clark’s red one, except a warmer, more subdued, and more earthy shade of red.

“Your hug’s a little tight!” Yet Esca hugs back just as tight.

Marcus breaks the hug but then runs his hands all over Esca’s blue t-shirt. “But I was out all day driving the new equipment to the farm while you were here doing chores ’n’ stuff. And then you were out today with Liathan. I’m allowed to miss you.”

“Of course you are.”

Esca grabs Marcus by the inside of his arm and pulls him into the house to the kitchen. Once seated at the table with slow-cooked barbecue beef and sweet tea served, Marcus looks into Esca’s eyes.

“Maybe, just maybe, I’ll love being stuck here with you.”

“Horrible sentences like that are why I don’t like you hanging out with Sid.”

“No, I mean it. I’m stuck here. Yet you’re here. You’re not somewhere else. Someone besides you isn’t here.”

Esca grabs Marcus’s hand and sits himself onto Marcus’s lap. One hand intertwines its fingers with Marcus’s and the other hand cups Marcus’s chin.

“Someone has to stop you from doing something you’ll regret. Not Clark. Dear God, not Sid. Me.” Esca stares into Marcus’s eyes blowing wide. “Me and only me.”

Pins and needles run down Marcus’s legs and with Esca’s heart beating steady yet stronger, Marcus can only nod before Esca leans forward for a kiss.

❀

On the dark grey cement foundation, the greenhouse is built. The black metal grids which hold glass panes in place are bolted down to the foundation. The black wrought iron fence — of bars which weave over and under and around each other in intricate floral patterns — is also bolted to the foundation and from its place it squeezes the greenhouse. Of the greenhouse’s two sets of doors — one at each end of the structure — only one is allowed to open with the fence’s only set of gates which face-off with the house’s kitchen door while the other set of greenhouse doors can open only to bars of iron flowers.

The vroom of a sports car can be heard announcing itself through the property gate and up the driveway. Then heels click across the wood floors from the living room to the kitchen and Tess emerges from the house — crisp dark grey linen suit over a dark purple silk blouse accented by dark grey gloves and black platform high heels which bring her eyes level with Marcus’s — and she makes her way to Marcus at the center of the greenhouse.

As she steps in, she pans her eyes up Marcus’s body before inspecting the empty space around him. “The fields out there, you can use however you wish to your own ends. But everything within these walls of glass and metal goes to my own ends as they belong to me.”

Marcus eyes the empty space around him. “Good to know. Care to put that in writing?”

“The deed already details what is my property legally.” Tess steps into Marcus’s space and pulls him into hers to whisper into his ear, “True ownership doesn’t come from between the lines; it comes from the agreement mutually placed between the lines.”

Tess breaks away from Marcus to leave and announce, “Next week, everything will be ready to move in. Do I have you for that?”

“Yeah, you got me.”

Tess gives Marcus one last glance over her shoulder. “That’s quite smart of you.” 

❀

With another year, another summer solstice approaches and the fields which were a sickly spotted green are now a rich dark brown bed for newly planted seeds. The seedlings are less than an inch high — not yet tall enough to even peek out of the ground and Marcus passes through the rows of seedlings, his mind wandering to the future in the summer when the plants will be at their full height and the tassels will start to show. With a few more steps forward, Marcus thinks back to before the first meteor shower.

With the sun in the west back then as it will be in a few months, the cornstalks were so tall over Marcus but then his father lifted him up and carried him on his shoulders so Marcus could see everything. On top of the world, Marcus ran his hand across the tops of the tassels, letting them tickle the underside of his palm.

“I wanna go see tomorrow,” he told his father.

“Sorry, Son. Lots of big kids and big machines are gonna be here for detasseling. Don’t want you getting caught up in all that.”

“Then I wanna see harvest!”

“Lot’s of big machines there too.”

“But I’m a big boy!”

His father laughed. “Then how about on Homecoming Day, you show your mother and me how big you are. Show us you don’t need to sit on my lap or your mother’s lap to see the game. With each Homecoming, we’ll see how much bigger you’ve gotten.”

But the one day, a Mr. Lionel Luthor showed up on the farm and Marcus knew that day would not come as his father signed papers with a deep sigh and shoulders hunched forward.

And whatever hope Marcus saw in his mother and father in intimate whispered plans between them were, on Homecoming Day, outshone and extinguished by a hail of burning hot green meteor rocks.

❀

“Now that summer’s almost over — ” Cottia looks out the kitchen window to the greenhouse of small shrubs with purple berries. “How’s your uncle?”

“Going crazy at the idea of doing nothing.” Marcus lets out a little smile before turning his attention back to the slow cooker. “Have I ever stopped being that boy at the shelter?”

“Well, seeing a five year old boy in intense pain and clinging to his best friend was a very strong first impression. And — ” Cottia helps herself to the sweet tea and also pours into the glasses for Marcus and Esca. “I heard him tell Aunt Valaria that telling you your parents died must have been much more traumatic on you than him.”

“I know. It’s just . . .” Marcus fidgets with the kitchen mitten in his hands. “I think I would’ve been a lot happier if he’d done nothing. I know he thought he was doting on me, but . . .”

“You didn’t like doctors poking and prodding you and the million variations of ‘What do you feel?’ instead of ‘How do you feel?’ ”

“Both those questions lead to Esca’s secret.”

“And do they lead to Clark’s secret, too?”

“I don’t know.” Marcus grimaces at the slow cooker and its ten minutes left. “I really don’t know; he’s really different . . . Prolly.”

“It’s a slow cooker.” Cottia throws the other kitchen mitten and giggles when it thwacks Marcus behind his head. “Set it to warm and leave it alone already ’til Esca gets home. And speaking of Clark, you haven’t spoken to him since he got back.”

“Why is Esca late? He prolly stopped at the animal shelter again to peer into the windows.” Marcus joins Cotta at the table. “Where’s Clark been?”

“Who knows? Are you gonna see him?”

“Prolly not. Clark’s busy with Lana. I’m busy with the new farm. Esca doesn’t want me hanging out with Clark. You know — Luthors.”

“Lana?” Cottia raises an eyebrow. “Again?”

“Yeah. I see them together a lot.”

“Well. We know how that’s going to end — again.”

“And we know how that’s going to start — again.”

“I wonder if they’ll ever break that pattern.”

“How? It’ll take an act of God to do that. Like Lois Lane — even if they’d rather clean out a pig sty than admit all the time they spend together is like dating.”

Cottia laughs.

“Or maybe . . .” Marcus thinks some more. “Super-powered aliens if there is no God. Or the power of a Luthor.”

“Please. Lex being jealous of Clark and Lana won’t be any less creepy just because Clark and Lana are adults now.”

Marcus blinks. “I never understood if he was jealous of Clark for Lana, or jealous of Lana for Clark.”

“I think you know the answer to that.”

“Okay. Both. But I don’t understand _how_ he’s both.”

“You wanna get inside his head?” Cottia asks. And when Marcus shakes his head no, she moves on. “There are gonna be two barn raisings tomorrow; Clark and his dad are gonna be at both. You should go if only to see how Clark’s doing. Somehow, you should let him know you’re still grateful for him keeping your secret.”

“Sure. Might as well go call Uncle; that’s something we can do together.”

❀

The first barn raising is a fast-paced event and Marcus and Esca focus all their attention to all the boards they have to nail to the support beams. And with Clark working on the other side, there’s no need to not give any attention to ignoring him.

But the afternoon starts off tense as they are given the same wall to work on. Maybe Esca hits the nails in harder, or maybe everything just sounds louder with the early afternoon sun beating down on them from high above. But definitely, Marcus can’t take his eyes off Esca — even with his head bent down to the boards, he sneaks quick and often glances to Esca through his lashes.

But working next to Clark, too, can’t be ignored. Clark seems smaller now with his head low and shoulder’s hunched but not with the insecurity he had growing up but instead with . . . the weight of the world? And somehow, because of his smaller stature, his presence is so much more pronounced.

At the end of the afternoon as Esca, Marcus’s uncle and Marcus head out to the road, Marcus feels a tap on his shoulder.

“Hey.” It’s Clark. “Can we talk?”

“Sure.” Marcus waves off his uncle and Esca and as they quicken their pace away, he swears Esca would storm off if he could as he eyes Esca’s clenched fists. As they go off, Marcus sets a slow pace for him and Clark.

“Maybe . . .” Clark shrugs but with his head down. “Maybe I was hoping we could be friends?”

“I’m going to be honest — but tacky.” Marcus keeps focused on the road they’re making their way towards to. “Luthor Corp. and Lex Luthor.”

“I know. Luthor Corp. is dangerous and Esca is important to you so you’re going to be loyal to him. And I get why you want nothing to do with Lex but he doesn’t have to be that way so I’m gonna still be friends with him even though it’s awkward between him and me.”

Marcus raises and eyebrow.

“And that prolly doesn’t make it better, huh?”

“Nope.”

“But speaking of awkward. Can I ask you another thing?”

“Sure.” What could be more awkward than _I won’t be friends with you?_

“You’re adopted right? Do you ever wonder if your uncle would love you more or less if you were different?”

“Really?” Marcus looks at Clark but at that sad face continues on. “Look. Just before my sixth birthday, Uncle and some accountant were going over everything — bank accounts, retirement accounts, the house’s value, the car’s value, even the value of stuff inside the house. In my parents’ will, Aunt Marti and Uncle Tullio were supposed to have custody of me, prolly ’cause Uncle Tullio’s rich. Aunt Marti wanted me but, turns out, Uncle Tullio didn’t.”

“Huh.”

“Uncle Tullio doesn’t matter at all. The point is, Uncle Marlo would’ve given up everything for me. And I think your parents would do the same.”

“Yeah they would. But . . .”

“But what? No matter what you do or who you are, would they give up everything for you? If yes, then that’s all that matters.”

Marcus and Clark are about to reach the road when they see that Esca and Marcus’s uncle are already there, waiting in the car. Esca yells from the backseat window, “Your uncle wants to buy us ice cream before we go home!”

“Great! Just a sec though!” Marcus yells back before turning to Clark again. “So. We won’t be friends, but I’ll still care about you.”

“You will?” Clark’s eyes widen. “Oh wow! Thanks! That means a lot!”

“Marcus!” Esca yells again. “If you don’t hurry up, your uncle and I are gonna buy lots of caramel praline and lots of mint and absolutely no rocky road!”

“Gotta go. But you take care.” Before sprinting to the car, Marcus lands a heavy pat onto Clark’s back — heavy enough to startle Clark forward.

“What did Clark want?” Esca asks once the car moves forward.

“I told him his hanging out with Lex makes people not want to hang out with him. Also, he’s feeling insecure about being adopted.”

“Still?” Esca rolls his eyes. “A lot of things were my fault and I eventually stopped worrying about being adopted.”

“Nothing was your fault,” Marcus’s uncle says. “Whatever happened, nothing is the fault of a child — especially a five year old.”

“Huh.” Marcus sulks into his seat and reaches for Esca’s hand; his hands are hot and sweaty with the leather work gloves still on and he wonders if Esca’s hands are the same. “I wonder how Clark is so different that he’s so insecure.”

❀

In the early evening when Esca, Marcus, and his Uncle walk into the kitchen, the first thing Marcus notices is a lavender notecard sticking out from one of the shrubs in the greenhouse. Marcus makes his way to the greenhouse and says, “I’ll be back in a few minutes, I wanna check the shrubs real quick.” Once inside, Marcus reads the notecard with a printed message:

> Did you make contact with Clark?

“So.” Esca stands outside the closed iron gate. “What does she want?”

“Clark.”

“Does he know why we’re here?”

“Shouldn’t. No one’s asked. Not even him.”

“So. No Clark to save us. Well, that’s the downside to not being his friend I suppose — we’ll just have to save ourselves.” Esca eyes Marcus as he brushes his hand across the leaves. “Starting with saving you. What are you doing?”

“I’m careful. A single prick won’t kill me; my heart’s too strong for that. Are you worried?”

“No. But you are.”

“Cottia brought over some chamomile tea. Let’s have some of that tonight.”

“So you _are_ worried.”

“What if I won’t be loyal to you?”

“I’ll always help you be loyal to me. And if you don’t, then I’ll make you — as long as you want to.” Esca opens the gate and turns back to the house. “Your wanting to is key.”

Marcus drops the berries into the potting soil and follow Esca back into the house closing the gate behind him.

❀

Their first harvest is anemic which is no surprise with the late planting. But the next two summers, the fields grow luscious green and the harvests earn them top dollar for quality and it seems the most exciting things the winter brings them are the chores of fixing the machines and planning out the next planting and maybe even some stables onto the land. And these are all they want to plan out.

The sun is almost level with the horizon when Marcus arrives at the house, but the silver Porsche blocking the house’s front door casts an even darker shadow.

“Marcus,” Lex is already inside and he greets Marcus as he steps in. When Lex offers his hand for a handshake, Marcus steps back from the bare hand almost stepping back outside the house.

“Of course.” Lex grins and presses forward. “Why go through all that for just a greeting?”

“You stay away from him!” Esca pulls Lex back.

“You’re not in a position to dictate anything to me.” Lex presses forward never mind Esca pulling him back. “Accept my offer; or else.”

“What offer?” Marcus asks.

“It seems that you think that profiting off these 1,500 acres for merely managing a 1,200 square foot greenhouse is a fair exchange. I’m here to make you work for it.”

“Hmph.” Esca lets go of Lex to put up air quotes when he says, “ ‘Fair’ and ‘work’ aren’t what Luthors are known for.”

“Just bring Lana Lang back to me,” Lex says. “Shouldn’t be too difficult of a task given her condition.”

“Is that . . . ?” Marcus realizes. “Wow. No. I hope you don’t think that she belongs to you just because she was once married to you. Are you mad at her because she obviously wants nothing to do with you? You’re even more creepy than all her other stalkers combined.”

“Just the contrary, Lana has been even more obsessed with me since the divorce. She’s a danger to herself and everyone around her and I am looking out for my own good.”

“Just like you were looking out for my own good when you kidnapped me!”

Just then, Marcus feels a gloved hand inside his elbow.

“Let me talk to him,” Tess tells Lex as she pulls Marcus back outside. “I can reason with him.”

“I’d love to see how you do that.” Lex smirks for just a briefest split of a moment and Marcus wonders uneasily what Lex is trying to not betray about himself.

Once Tess and Marcus are a dozen yards from the house, Marcus can’t help but look over the two Porsches blocking the open front door and trying to peer in but Tess gets down to business.

“I’m going to suggest another plan to Lex,” Tess begins. “And it’ll be in your best interest to cooperate with mine.”

“No way!”

“Keeping you here was about keeping you quiet. Lex already has everything he needed from you. However, with Esca . . .”

“Don’t you dare!”

“I don’t want to hurt Esca.”

“As in you don’t want to hurt him more than you hurt me?”

“Believe me, I have no interest in Esca — ”

“Just me.”

“Lex wants to use him as a guide into some caves nearby.” Tess moves into Marcus’s space. “But trust me to prevent that from happening. You know that I of all people have the most power and influence on him.”

“And on me.” Marcus stands his ground even with Tess encroaching in. “You know too much about me.”

“You’re right, I do.” Tess brings a hand up to Marcus’s face and lets it linger just shy of his skin. “It’s why I appeal to your feelings for Esca instead of putting a gun to your head. Now, do you trust my influence and power to make an appeal for Esca?”

“You see,” Tess continues as her hand traces a shield above Marcus’s skin. “There are a number of expeditions Lex is planning and I want in with a minimal entourage of minions all vying for attention and credit.”

“And what do I have to do?” Marcus asks as the musky scent from Tess’s leather glove wafts into his headspace and he can’t help but breathe in.

“Your physical therapist’s office is a few blocks from the hospital. Just bring flowers to Lana once a week.”

“You said you wouldn’t hurt Clark before meeting him.”

“I didn’t mention Clark.”

“Oh please. I don’t know if they’re dating again or not but it’s obvious they’ve loved each other for years. So. Why go after Lana if not Clark too?”

“I have no intention of hurting Clark. I said I wouldn’t hurt him before meeting him; that’s still on the table.”

Tess presses further into Marcus’s space but Marcus pulls away and pushes away her hand.

“You’ll want to do this for me and not for Lex.”

“He thinks the farm is his.”

“It’s a Luthor Corp. resource; but the deed is in my name.”

Once again, Tess presses into Marcus’s space and brings a hand up to Marcus’s face, tracing a barrier of air above the curves of his face before breaking through and letting her hand settle on Marcus’s cheek. Leather musk wafts and wraps around Marcus’s headspace as he breathes in the scent and Tess positions Marcus to focus on her.

“You can kidnap Lana for Lex. Or, you can send her flowers for me. I think you know what you want to do.”

Marcus leans into Tess’s hand and nods yes.

Tess releases Marcus and beckons over Lex who looks impressed.

“He’ll agree to my plan?” Lex asks.

“No. But he’ll agree to mine.”

“Well then. Aren’t I glad you got here too fast?”

“I keep a very close eye on my assets.” Tess smirks, spying from the corner of her eye through the open door on Esca.

“And you took initiative — without my telling you.”

“Do I have to learn everything from you?” And with that, Tess smirks at Lex and then gets into her car and drives off.

“No you don’t,” Lex muses to himself as he gets into his own car. “Big things will happen to you.”

With the cars gone and with an unblocked path to the house, Marcus stomps in.

“What did Ms. Mercer mean by ‘keeping an eye on her assets’?”

Esca says nothing but stands his ground.

“Esca. When she said that, why did she glance at you?”

Esca shakes his head no but doesn’t budge from his position.

“Esca. What did you do?”

“I report to her what happens in the cornfields.”

Marcus clenches his fists and looks away from Esca and starts eyeing the walls around him. “That’s not all is it?”

“Nothing escapes the greenhouse — or this house — without her knowing.”

“These three years? . . . Everything? . . . THESE THREE YEARS?”

“She had to know you weren’t betraying her.”

“No she didn’t!” Marcus looks back at Esca. “Not that way! You gave her so much of me — of us. AND FOR WHAT? What do we have of her?”

“Everything I have done, I have done for us. For me! For you!”

“For what!? For us to be assets for her to own and use?”

“You! You’re upset that we’re property and assets when you were the one who accepted her land. What did you think would become of us?”

“I thought Ms. Mercer and I had a fair deal.”

“There is no fair deal with her because she’s a Luthor!”

“That doesn’t matter!”

“I think it does. It does when she deems Lana’s safety a fair trade for Clark’s safety. When she deems our safety a fair trade for land. And when she dictates these terms of fairness to us and disregards our opinions.”

Esca reaches for Marcus yet stops just shy of touching.

“Marcus. You know she’s a Luthor.”

Marcus pulls Esca’s hand in to touch and lets himself collapse onto Esca as the simmering blood rushes through his body.

“I just wanted Clark to not be treated like a freak.”

“I should leave you.” Esca turns to step towards the bedroom as he carries Marcus’s weight and keeps his hand tight around Marcus’s wrist, trapping Marcus to him. “At any point, did you think of me?”

“Let me do this,” Marcus says as he lands onto the bed. With the windows open, the warm air is a cool relief as the heat from Esca’s anger leaves with Esca’s touch. “So long as I do this, you’re safe.”

“Because she said so.”

Esca climbs onto the bed and onto Marcus to sit on his hips and puts his weight through his hands onto Marcus’s shoulders to hold him down with only the strings of a well-worn and thread-bare t-shirt blocking Esca’s touch from Marcus’s skin.

Marcus looks up at Esca and into his eyes. Marcus nods yes and that is all the permission Esca needs to run his hands up Marcus’s bare neck. Esca hears and feels Marcus’s gasp for air and it’s what Esca needs to feel from Marcus who is burning from hot blood pushing madly through arteries and veins and the muscles clenched tight to hold and possess.

It’s not until Esca exhales and relaxes that he realizes that Marcus has presented more of his bare neck and pressed his cheeks into Esca’s hands — more skin, more touch.

“Someday. Marcus. Someday everything you do will be for me and I’ll take you yet and you’ll be mine yet. I promise you.”

Esca stares down at Marcus and into his eyes when Marcus nods yes again. With that from Marcus, Esca rushes down to steal a kiss.

❀

The week passes and Marcus and Esca go about their days the same. Esca spends the early mornings planning out the workload for the day ahead while Marcus tends to the greenhouse. Then it’s a quick breakfast together before the long day ahead in the fields.

But when Thursday daybreak comes, Marcus lingers in the greenhouse just a while longer. He stands in a sea of green — light green calyces swelling as they cover the flower buds within ready to burst and blossom. And next to him in the center is a cart of the shrubs which have already blossomed; in a sea of green, a spot of purple.

Outside the closed iron gates, Esca keeps himself. “Are those the flowers you’ll bring to Lana?”

“No. I’ll just buy a bouquet from Nell’s — or whatever that store is called now.”

Esca eyes the sea of green and purple that surround Marcus as he tests and notes the dark soil from which the flowers grow. As the breezes flow through the doors from one end of the greenhouse to the other, dark petals sway in almost black waves creeping around Marcus.

“Do you even know anything about these flowers?”

“Be careful and mind your heart around them.”

“Three years and that’s still all she trusts you with?”

“It’s all we need,” Marcus says but Esca shakes his head no.

“Marcus. Come to me.” Esca, with bare hands, grips the iron bars between himself and Marcus. As Marcus approaches the gate, Esca wants to reach out to Marcus but then Esca peers at Marcus’s gloved wrist and sees another glove’s wrist peeking out from under and sees Marcus shake his head now and Esca has to will himself back.

“Come home as soon as you can,” is all Esca can say to Marcus from inside the gate. “Come home to me as soon as you can.”

❀

It’s that time of day when the shadows begin to grow longer when Marcus approaches the hospital. Inside, long corridors harbor a litany of reunions, prayers and cries.

When Marcus reaches the closed door to Lana’s room, he pauses to take in a deep breath and then knocks. With no answer, he cautiously pushes himself in. Crossing the threshold and closing the door behind him, he is now face to face with her backlit, earth-brown, long, straight strands of hair.

Marcus presses himself further into the room and places himself between Lana and the window. With Lana in front of him to his right the sun beats down unobstructed over his right and onto Lana’s face, Lana’s unblinking trance-grey eyes.

With the flowers in his hands between himself and Lana, he begins, “I’m sorry.”

With no response from her, Marcus looks down into the flowers, and among them propped up on a stick, the tiny black box no larger than the meteor rock necklace she used to wear, its frontside housing a lens and a sensor.

“All I wanted to do was to keep Clark safe. I never thought about hurting him, about hurting you.”

Marcus looks to his left, looks away from Lana. With his eyes closing, a tear drops down his left cheek.

“You need to know I’m doing this for Tess Mercer and only Tess Mercer.”

Marcus sets the vase of flowers down on the nightstand to his left and clears some of the flowers’ stems, leaves, and petals so that the tiny black box would see and sense the room unobstructedly. Then he places a pink card behind the black box.

“About Ms. Mercer. She’s not a Luthor . . . Except she is.”

Marcus glances over his shoulder to see Lana there, her eyes still unblinking and grey. With no response, he turns his attention back to the black box to press the top button. A tiny red dot, no larger than a period shines on the button’s face, shines through what Marcus had thought was solid metal.

 _If that side isn’t solid metal after all, then any of its other sides, too, might not be solid,_ Marcus thinks to himself. But oh well, the pink card is there now just as any bouquet of flowers should have a get well card. _At least the flowers aren’t fake._

❀

Over a month of Thursdays go by uneventfully — as uneventful as the delivery of a camera and motion sensor can be — until one afternoon when Marcus comes out of his physical therapist’s office and, amidst the flow of nondescript trucks and sedans with windows rolled down to let the heat escape from inside, sees a windowless black van driving towards the hospital.

Marcus races down the street after the van but when he gets into the hospital, Tess intercepts him, stepping into his space; her bare hand pulls him aside from the inside of his elbow below the hem of his t-shirt’s sleeve. At the touch, the pain freezes his legs; and his heart, which has been beating fast and strong from the run to the hospital now beats even stronger yet slower and more steady.

“What are you doing?” Marcus asks. “And how are you so calm?”

“My dear Marcus,” Tess says not so quietly as she presses Marcus up against a wall. “Are you feeling weak? We don’t have to see Lana if you’re not up to it.”

“I . . . will . . .” With his knees buckling, Marcus struggles to at least stand even if only to stand in place.

“Someone!” Tess yells at the people passing by while keeping her grip on Marcus. “Someone! Help! He’s losing his strength!”

“Oh my god!” A doctor rushes up. “It’s the Aquila boy! Nurses!”

“No wait!” Marcus pushes back against Tess but his knees are buckling and despite his efforts collapses onto her. “Wait! I have to see she’s okay!”

“You need to calm him down!” Tess shouts at the doctor. “He’s very stubborn!”

“Yes, yes. I know!” The doctor says. “Let’s get him into ER!”

“Wait!” Marcus yells as hospital staff rush up — some to hold him up, others to help him to a nearby bench. As more hands hold him, Marcus’s heart races with theirs, all theirs, and the asynchronization tires his heart out until — 

One last look at Tess as she pulls him into her embrace and she says, “You’ll be okay; I promise you.”

Then blackness.

❀

When Marcus comes to, the first thing he sees is Esca peering over him. Behind Esca, the window frames the horizon under a low moon.

“You’re fine now. Or so say the machines,” Esca informs Marcus.

“Huh?”

“Your heart gave out.”

“Never been touched by so many people; wow that was wild.” Marcus looks up at Esca. “And Lana?”

“Missing.”

“Oh.” If only Marcus could sink back further into the bed.

“Has been for the last hour. Ms. Mercer was questioned since the whole hospital knew the two of you were here for Lana. The police might not question you. You were out when Lana disappeared and Ms. Mercer has the police and doctors convinced you were hysterical.”

“Of course she does.” Marcus looks up to the ceiling and replays the day’s events in his head. “And she probably has everyone thinking I’m hers, doesn’t she?”

“That wouldn’t be untrue, would it?” Esca asks and Marcus can see Esca’s brows furrowed and eyes widened in anger. “Ms. Mercer and I exchanged words over her staying by your side all afternoon and evening and holding your hand the entire time.”

“Esca! Wait! You know I’m yours!”

“Don’t talk to me about your being mine. Not when we’re her property — especially you.”

Marcus reaches for Esca’s face and stops close to his skin. But then Esca grabs Marcus’s hand and holds on tight, and it’s as if Marcus’s whole body is being squeezed; yet instead of feeling suffocated, he feels only hugged by Esca’s hold.

Beep! Beep! Beep!

A nurse rushes into the room. “Oh no! His heart! Young man! You need to leave!”

“You can’t make me leave!” Esca yells as Marcus says, “No. Wait. I want him here.”

“It’s five minutes to visitor hours ending. You might as well leave now.”

Esca leaves but only after grudgingly checking the clock on the wall and giving the nurse a glare. Once gone, the nurse turns to Marcus. “And I’ll ask the doctor what she wants to do about your heart.”

“No drugs!”

“I’ll mention your request.”

“Please?”

“But no matter what happens tonight, we’ll need to keep a close eye on your heart.”

“I’ll mind my heart real careful tonight.”

Once alone, Marcus puts a hand over his heart. Although the warmth from Esca’s hold has faded, Marcus’s heart still beats strong from Esca and it’s the last thing he feels as he drifts to sleep.

❀

“Dr. Patel thinks I should see some PT halfway between here and Metropolis.” On the way home in the car’s passenger seat, Marcus twiddles his thumbs and yet the smile on his face rivals the sun in the sky. “His name’s Ulpius . . . I think.”

“You think. Oh.” Esca laughs. “Should I tell Dr. Patel you might not have been listening?”

“Or . . . you could tell her I might have been listening.” Marcus giggles and Esca rolls his eyes. When Esca glances back at him, Marcus continues, “He’s some cardiovascular / pulmonary PT or something. But I dunno. He’s all the way out there.”

“Is that your best reason for not seeing him?” Esca rolls his eyes again.

“I like Galarius! Don’t see why a sports / orthopedic PT can’t help me here.”

“And with Galarius threatening to fire you as a client at every other appointment, it’s good to not have other options.” Esca nods, then giggles and shakes his head no.

“I’m not very reckless.” Marcus pouts. “Just only a little bit reckless.”

“Sure . . .”

“So find me a better reason to stick with Galarius. And not that he and Uncle were awesome friends in the army.”

“That’s your reason — not mine.” Esca glances at Marcus, then focuses back to the road ahead of them. “I wonder if he’s the guy Galarius talked about — the guy who showed up to a 9 a.m. appointment obviously hungover.”

“What!? Wow. If that’s true, then no.”

“We should talk to Galarius, see what he says. But first, we should check insurance to see how much they’ll cover.”

“Let’s not talk insurance.” Now Marcus rolls his eyes. “I wanted my first day back to be a fun day — before we’re back in the fields doing catch-up work on everything I didn’t do.”

“A fun day, huh?”

Marcus leans in towards Esca and whispers into his ear, “Faster, Esca. Faster.”

“Are you . . . ?” Esca begins to ask but stops when he notices Marcus’s pupils dilating. “Wow, you are! We don’t even have step one of your recovery figured out and you’re already being reckless.”

“But Esca,” Marcus continues to whisper. “What goes on in the bedroom stays in the bedroom.”

“Hm . . .”

“Me. With you. And only you.” Marcus flutters his eyelashes and at that, Esca blinks before staring at the road ahead of them not passing them by fast enough and presses his foot just a little heavier on the gas pedal.

Once the car is outside the house and in front of the door, they rush out of the car and stand close to each other. Marcus has his hands up, wanting to put his hands on Esca but is indecisive as to where on Esca. So Esca just grabs Marcus by his belt buckle and pulls him closer to demand, “You. Bedroom. Naked. Now.” And with a nod, Marcus rushes into the house.

Stopping to check the mailbox, Esca pulls out a pink notecard. On one side in dark purple ink in Marcus’s best textbook cursive hand:

> Dearest Lana,
> 
> Get well soon.
> 
> Love,  
>  Tess Mercer

And on the other side, in a brilliant turquoise ink and a round and loopy hand:

> Dearest Tess,
> 
> I am feeling much better now. Thank you for all the flowers and the notecards.
> 
> Most sincerely,  
>  Lana Lang

_Oh Marcus. Did you dare risk crossing Ms. Mercer?_ Esca thinks to himself. _Guess we should soon expect visits from Ms. Lang or Ms. Mercer — or both._ But for now, the pink notecard goes into the mail basket on the kitchen table because Ms. Lang and Ms. Mercer can have Marcus’s attention later.

For now, only Esca should have and command Marcus’s attention; Marcus is Esca’s and only Esca’s to take.


	4. Chapter 4

The rest of the summer comes and passes and Tess comes by for a visit one late afternoon. Looking out the window and down onto the greenhouse, Marcus hears the vroom of her car up the driveway and her heels clicking downstairs from the living room to the kitchen where they stop. And then up the stairs until he sees her enter the bedroom.

“There you are,” Tess says. “Of course. The greenhouse isn’t your home.”

“Only my fate,” Marcus shoots back.

“There there.” Tess moves to stand next to Marcus. “What did I tell you about fate?”

“Easy to feel insignificant without a choice.”

“As insignificant as Clark?” Tess looks out the window, over the cornfields to the Luthor mansion in the horizon. “I met him earlier this week. He’s quite the hero in action but otherwise quite intimidated and it’s not because of strong women. Anyways. There is a man with a destiny.”

“But Ms. Mercer. That implies he has agency in his future.”

“We all do. But anyone can be pushed to a choice.”

“Huh. This greenhouse doesn’t feel like a destiny.”

“Don’t worry. I promised you that someday this that you see will be yours — free and clear. And this town will know you for success — and not giving up.”

“I don’t think success working for the Luthors is anything better or worse than giving up against the Luthors.”

“You’re right. But one yields more power. And be very careful before you say you don’t want to yield power. You have a gift for telling honesty from dishonesty in other people. But can you use your gift on yourself?”

Marcus looks back down onto the greenhouse.

“You do want to yield power.” Tess whispers into Marcus ear. And with that, she leaves but on her way, she calls out, “Keep in touch.” 

❀

And then winter solstice too passes. In fact, it’s late January before the farm gets another visitor.

And when the visitor comes, Marcus at first thinks that the dark figure in the distance — the figure with tall straight posture and strident gait — is the Luthor Corp. woman come to claim her ownership of her land and her assets.

But as the figure approaches, Marcus realizes the figure too small to be Ms. Mercer. Instead it’s the now divorced and former Luthor woman.

“Lana?” Marcus can’t help but stare at the now young adult woman who, as a girl, haunted Smallville with her morbid fascination with her parents’ death dressed in cotton candy and baby pinks. “I mean . . . Ms. Lang?”

“Marcus Aquila?” Lana holds out a gloved hand for a handshake when Marcus meets her outside the picket fence. “Shame we never spoke much growing up. It’d be easier to approach you about doing business.”

And when Marcus, with his own gloved hand, shakes her hand, she continues, “I want to buy this land.”

“These walls and fields have seen and heard everything. You can’t put a price on that.”

“Oh yes I can.” Lana looks above the front door where she can’t — but knows she should — see the lens of a camera. “Or maybe, these walls and fields haven’t see and heard everything if I’m still alive.”

“Ms. Lang. This land is not for sale.”

“It’s harder to put something on sale without the deed.” Lana turns back to Marcus. “Interesting that of all my ex-husband’s assets, there were no paper records of this one. It’s as if none of this here — ” Lana waves her hand around to signify all that surrounds them. “ — none of this here exists at all.”

Marcus straightens his back and looks away. “Think carefully if you want to look for properties or assets owned. Some have more paperwork than others.”

“And how much here is in Tess Mercer’s name?”

“You best not deal with her.”

“I know what it must look like. The woman who so kindly sent me all those flowers at the hospital before kidnapping me on my ex-husband’s orders and I repay her by trying to take over her land?” Lana steps into Marcus’s space. “Don’t tell me to not deal with Luthors. Not after I married one. So tell me. How much here is in Tess Mercer’s name.”

“All of the land.”

“Only all of the land?”

“What are you getting at Ms. Lang?”

“Only trying to figure out how much I need to settle,” Lana says as Marcus looks into her eyes. He can’t deny the determination in her as she says, “Believe me, I will settle this.”

❀

Not even an hour after Lana has left, a silver Porsche 911 drives up to the house. With her own key to the house, Tess lets herself in and announces herself with, “Let’s be clear. It doesn’t matter who legally owns this land.”

Marcus and Esca, who have been plotting on maps of cornfields on the coffee table, look up at Tess standing over them dropping a letter-sized envelope onto the table over the maps.

“What’s this?” Marcus asks.

“It doesn’t matter if Lana owns the land or not. In fact, she can have the land for an even $10 million dollars. All I need is for her to have you — or, specifically, to think she has your sympathy and loyalty.”

Marcus and Esca look down at the envelope and then back up again at Tess who explains, “Intel she thinks she wants. And easy ways around the Luthor mansion to it.”

“What do you want us to do?” Marcus asks. “Trap her?”

“Not trap, oh no. I just need eyes on her — notebook, USB drives, doesn’t matter, so long as she has one of them.”

“I don’t trust you. Last time, what I did led to her being kidnapped.”

“Which you already knew going in.”

“He’ll do it,” Esca interjects. “He’ll do it and I’ll guarantee it.”

“Oh my.” Tess’s eyebrows go up. “What an unexpected ally.”

“We’re your assets. Marcus more than I, but I supposed that anyone who owns Marcus also owns me.” Esca stands to meet Tess’s eyes but, even with her in flats, she still has a few inches over him. Yet, Esca continues, “I don’t let Marcus forget his place. I don’t let you forget the promise you made to him the first time we met face-to-face.”

“Your terms favor me more than you. What’s your aim?”

“Only the truth of the situation out in the open.”

“Truth is power?”

“No. Truth is safety.”

“And that goes back to power. If that’s all you want, then I’ll be on my way.” Yet Tess stands her ground and says, “Keep in touch.”

Stomp!

Esca has jumped onto the table and onto Tess’s envelope.

“No, no.” Tess smirks and wags a finger. “I dictate contact.” With that, Tess turns and leaves but not before calling out, “And Marcus. Do get in touch with Lana as soon as possible.”

Once the door between them and Tess is closed, Esca yells, “Damn it!”

“But Esca,” Marcus says looking up at Esca. “If you didn’t want me to, then why did you guarantee that I would?”

“Marcus.” Esca steps down and pushes the table away from them and, pulling on Marcus’s shirt, brings Marcus to his knees. Grabbing at Marcus’s hair, he asks, “Do you trust me?”

“But I don’t understand what you’re doing.”

Esca grips Marcus’s hair a little tighter. “I am taking a leap of faith with your loyalties — and Ms. Mercer’s.”

“So you betray me to her?” Marcus tries to look away.

Esca grips Marcus’s hair even tighter and when he realizes he can’t grip any tighter without hurting Marcus, he yanks Marcus’s head back so that Marcus, with his neck exposed, is looking up at him and straight into his eyes.

“Trust me!”

Marcus nods yes at the imperative. He brings himself back onto the couch and pulls Esca onto him for a kiss. As Esca settles onto the kiss, Marcus can feel their hearts beating slower as they relax into calmness. Even with the mystery of Esca’s logic and motives, Marcus has the truth of Esca’s heart and that is worth surrendering to.

❀

BANG!

Two idyllic weeks come to an end like this — above the front door, a hole above the frame where a bullet landed bullseye onto a camera lens. Marcus and Esca rush out of the house into the night to meet Tess holding a small handgun.

“Ms. Mercer!” Marcus yells. “What are you doing!?”

“Lex sees everything,” Tess says as she allows herself into the house. In the living room, she shoots once above the TV and once again above the fireplace between the photo of Marcus and Esca as children with Marcus’s uncle and another photo of Marcus and Esca recently huddled together up in a tree.

“But . . .” Marcus follows Tess as she calmly makes her way around the house.

BANG! There goes the one above the carport door.

BANG! There goes the one above door to the kitchen.

BANG! BANG! BANG! The ones above the doors to the master and guest bedroom and bathroom.

BANG! BANG! From outside the house, go the ones above kitchen and garage door.

Here between the house and the greenhouse Marcus can finally complete his thought, “But I thought Lex Luthor was dead. Your newspaper said so last week.”

“For your sake, I hope only Lex and Matthews had access to the cameras.”

“Esca,” Marcus says with the most imperceptible nod he can to the upstairs master bedroom window. “Go back inside and let me be the one to talk to Ms. Mercer.”

Once alone, Marcus reminds Tess, “I thought Esca installed the cameras for you. Esca thought so too — as did you.”

“Well, Lex has his ways of seeing straight from the inside of one’s head doesn’t he?” The low, tense and growl-like pain in Tess’s voice gives Marcus a warning which Tess advises with, “Best to sever all ties with him.”

“And Lana? She called earlier. She said she’d meet me soon to apologize for not settling the farm but to not worry. What does that mean?”

“It means that she burned all my research and I keep this land; she and I are friends now.”

“I thought Esca had a strange definition of possessiveness, but your definition of friendship is even stranger.”

“She keeps my research from Lex; I keep you from Lex. That was the compromise — or, now, the agreement.”

“So Lex isn’t dead?”

“Even death is no guarantee of safety from a Luthor.”

“And I don’t doubt you have other ‘assets’ you want to keep your eyes on.”

“Why are you still here, Marcus?”

“Do I have a choice to not be?”

“Why do you choose to not rebel against me. You know you could.”

“Because.” Marcus takes a step towards Tess. “You’re not Lex Luthor. You’re not a Luthor.”

“Ha.” Tess lets out a laugh. “Being a Luthor. Nothing has come more naturally to me and yet, I still have to work so hard at it. As for being CEO of Luthor Corp.; never stops feeling so strange and unnatural yet the strangeness has long since become routine.”

“You want my loyalty, I’ll give you my loyalty. But you have to remember — no matter what, no matter how easy or routine or normal being a Luthor is — remember that you’re not a Luthor.”

“Just for that I have your loyalty?” Tess takes a step towards Marcus.

“Well, your touch doesn’t kill me.”

Tess, with her gloved hands, pulls Marcus in. In her high heels, Tess would see eye-to-eye with Marcus, but she loses the level line of sight as her heels sink into the earth, just a slight bit, and she pulls Marcus in as close as she can.

“So long as I have your loyalty, I will protect you.” Resting her cheek onto Marcus, she continues, “But you have to do as I say.”

“What would you have me do?” Marcus looks mostly down at the ground — or where the earth would be as the dark colors of ground and sky blend and bleed into each other — and out of the corner of his eye, he spies the greenhouse behind Tess.

“Hide.”

“For how long?”

“I have many enemies — enemies who wouldn’t hesitate to kill. Wherever you are, don’t ever draw attention to yourself. And no matter what happens, don’t come out until I tell you.”

“How many enemies do you have?”

Tess lifts her head up to press her cheek against Marcus’s cheek. His legs tremble for a moment before he regains himself to remain standing.

“You’ve grown so strong.” Tess presses her face further against Marcus’s face and presses her body up against Marcus so he is holding them both up. “Much stronger now than when we first met. Strong enough for a more normal life among the townspeople. But nowhere near strong enough for the dangerous people I deal with.”

“All this?” Marcus minds the dull ache all up and down his legs and the gravity pushing down his entire body as he lifts himself up. “I did all this only for Esca.”

Tess pushes herself apart from Marcus and takes his hand to lead him into the house. Inside, as she makes her way to the front door, she pauses and turns back to look at him.

“Then the quiet and invisible life is no conflict with your goals.”

Tess nods to the stairs and her eyes motion to where the master bedroom is.

“No Ms. Mercer.” Marcus makes his way to the front door and opens it. “I’m still here. And I’ll be here.”

“Then all bodes well for you,” Tess says before closing the door behind herself.

“Hiding. Hm.” Esca comes down the stairs. “It’s so routine isn’t it? But let’s be honest, it’s the last thing that comes naturally to you.”

“But Esca.” Marcus sprints to the stairs to meet Esca where he promptly lifts him up. “How natural is it for me to be with you like this? And how much do I work so hard for this? Think about this because I do it all for you.”

Esca, who has his arms around Marcus’s neck, grips Marcus’s head possessively and, pressing their cheeks together and dragging a fingernail down his spine, whispers, “Tonight, I’ll show you how natural being human is . . . and how much I have to work hard at it. Now . . . Can you make it up all the way to the bedroom?”

Staring into Esca’s eyes blown wide, Marcus rushes both of them as fast as he can, as fast as their hearts beat before throwing the both of them onto the bed and landing on top of Esca to take a kiss. Or maybe, it’s Esca taking the kiss as he’s the one pulling Marcus down with no intention to let go.

❀

The high noon sun in the winter shines bright yet is barely warm enough to warm Esca’s skin against gentle breezes as he pauses outside the animal shelter to look through the windows at the dogs.

“Just wolf out and take her out.” At Liathan’s words, Esca almost drops his cell phone onto the pavement. “Don’t tell me you’ve never thought about it.”

“Not the thing to say to me in front of the animal shelter,” Esca talks back. “And I have thought about it. But at this point, it would ruin us financially. And then what? Three years down the drain.”

“Wow. You’re in deep. Then I got nothing.”

“It’s okay. I’ll figure things out.”

“Yeah but . . . I miss us figuring things out together. In middle school, you could’ve gone to the Kawatche Nation and asked them to help you figure out this wolf shape-shifting thing. But instead you chose me; I turn into a seal.”

“Well, we were already hunting buddies; there are no secrets after hours in blinds. But you know, maybe I should’ve gone to them. One of them — Kyla, I think — dated Clark. I’d like to ask them what she saw in Clark.”

“And it all comes back to Clark.”

“Who is he more loyal to? Clark or Tess? He says ‘Clark’ . . .”

“Maybe you need to separate loyalty vs. obedience, command vs. control.”

“What if she blurs the lines between both?”

“Like you haven’t been all along.” 

❀

“She’s got you on a short leash, doesn’t she?”

“Hey Sid. Hanging up now.” Marcus should let the phone drop from his shoulder. It would make cooking a lot easier.

“No wait. I mean. Whenever someone says, ‘Marcus! Don’t do the thing!’ What do you do? You do the thing.

“Third grade P.E. when Mr. Marckle yelled, ‘Marcus! Don’t jump from that high!’ How long were you on crutches?

“And summer after seventh grade when your Uncle yelled, ‘Marcus! Don’t touch the mountain lion?’ How long did you have nightmares from knowing what death feels like?

“Oh. And ninth grade when Principal Kwan said, ‘Boys, playing cards are not allowed on campus’ — ”

“We all got detention for that last one.”

“The point is. She’s telling you to do nothing. And you’re going to do nothing? Who is she? And who are _you_ that she keeps you alive ?”

“What do you mean by that!?”

“She values her flowers more than you! So. Who are _you?_ ”

“Someone putting a lot of faith into her I guess. I don’t know.”

With the onions in front of him, Marcus picks up the honing rod and swipes a few passes across his knife as he remembers Cottia telling him, _The sharper the knife, fewer cells you break and the less you cry._

“Honestly?” Marcus wonders out loud. “I don’t know how much of me Ms. Mercer has dissected.”

❀

Another week passes, and Lana never pays a visit. Instead, all Marcus gets is another phone call.

“Tess warned me that it wouldn’t be in your best interest to be anywhere near my meteor rock tainted body suit.”

“I would chance it. But she’s right it wouldn’t be in my best interest.”

“I don’t want to hurt you.” From what Marcus can hear, it sounds like Lana might be choking back a sob. “I never wanted to hurt anyone. I just thought protecting myself would mean protecting other people.”

“Is that how you see it?”

“How else do you see it?”

“Sometimes . . .” Marcus stares out the greenhouse windows and bars. “Sometimes, you have to hurt yourself to protect the ones you love.”

❀

Meanwhile, Cottia and Esca walk around town, enjoying the sun on a windless day.

“Ms. Mercer and Lana as friends?” Esca wonders as he dumps groceries into the trunk of his car. “Doesn’t make sense.”

“Well, they’ve both been hurt by Lex Luthor. I mean, it sounds like whatever surveillance he had on her, it was really invasive. And I heard a rumor Lana’s pregnancy was a fake. But she doesn’t seem the type to do that.”

“Mr. Luthor creeps out Marcus so much; Marcus really thinks he faked Lana’s pregnancy. Wow, are we crazy for thinking that? How would that even work?”

“No, we’re not crazy. Everyone else is just not paying attention.”

“I can’t imagine hurting myself like that to protect someone.”

“And lots of people can’t imagine hurting the one you love to protect them. And yet, here you are — because Luthors. So be careful, okay?

“You — both you and Marcus — will be in some similar situation where you’re vulnerable. They’ve found strength in being vulnerable and they’re my heroes for that.”

Cottia drags Esca by the inside of his elbow.

“But enough about that. After you’re done with the bank, why don’t we go to the animal shelter and squee over the dog you might someday adopt?”

❀

The months pass by — winter thaws out and spring rushes in. Yet the house seems as barren of life as ever save for some nights when Marcus and Esca steam up a room. It’s these nights when they focus on their own whispers to each other and ignore the whispers of the townsfolk that have never really quieted down or gotten louder in the years since childhood. And so most days, the house stands as quiet as the day Marcus and Esca arrived.

Until late one evening when Esca stands in front of the fireplace with an open box under one arm and, with his free hand, traces over the faces in the photos. There’s the photo of them that took forever and happened just before the battery ran down from an afternoon of flashes and self-timers as Marcus and Esca graduated from trying to not blink to making funny faces and Marcus’s uncle not trying to stop his laughter anymore. And then there’s the other one that also took so long because Cottia had climbed to the highest and thinnest branches which would hold her and the swaying made her paranoid about dropping the camera onto Marcus and Esca who would surely let the camera slip by them as they’d rather hold on to each other.

With only these two photos on the mantle, Esca traces the empty spaces. At what point should a house try to be a home?

“Someday,” Esca says, peering into the box. “Marcus and I will own our own land and our own home. And we’ll be married with a huge family — just like we always talked about.”

“I’m doing laundry.” Marcus enters the living room. “Have you seen my red — ” Marcus pauses at the words on the box: Smallville Animal Rescue and Shelter. “Is that? . . .”

“Yes it is!” Esca presents the box to Marcus. “The shelter had a sidewalk show-off and I just had to.”

Marcus rushes over and lights up when he peers in and sees a puppy bundled up with Esca’s blue-grey sweater under it and his own red sweater covering it. He lifts up the puppy from inside the box and says to the small blue-eyed, pink-nosed, black face checking him out, “So cute! You’re the most adorable wolf cub ever, aren’t you?”

“Ha.” Esca laughs and scritches the puppy’s chin. “Oh yes, little Wolf Cub. That’s exactly what I thought of you when I first saw you. Though, at two pounds at eight weeks, you’ll be lucky to be bigger than a pom pom won’t you? You little terrorball of squee.”

“Is that what we’re gonna call him? ‘Terrorball’?”

“Actually. I think we already named him Wolf Cub.” Esca scritches the puppy’s chin again and wraps his other arm around Marcus’s waist.

“We should celebrate!”

“Yes we should.” Esca tugs Marcus in closer to him.

“That too! But first, we should also do something that involves Cub.”

Marcus makes his way to the sofa and is about to place Cub onto his lap when Esca pounces onto the sofa and crawls to Marcus and places his head onto Marcus’s lap.

“Don’t think, not even for a moment, that I’ll surrender you — not even to this puppy,” Esca says as he takes the puppy from Marcus and places it onto his chest. Looking up at Marcus, he claims, “You’re mine.”

“I know.” Marcus runs a hand into Esca’s hair and the other across the length of Cub’s back through solid black fur. “My attention is all yours.”

 _Commandeered into affection._ Marcus thinks to himself. _What a way to surrender._

❀

The next day, Marcus and Cub are at an impasse as Cub eyes the floor from the edge of the mattress and Marcus stands over on guard just in case Cub manages to escape his prison sentence for being a pantry thief. To pass the time, he talks strategy with Cottia on the phone.

“When we got home, Uncle said, ‘You boys need to upgrade your dog proofing.’ and I said, ‘Naw. Esca and I have had years to think of everything.’ ”

Cottia laughs. “Which is why Esca is now shopping for a baby fence for the pantry door.”

Marcus sighs. “Give a puppy only the smallest crack and he’ll take a mile — or in this case, all the bottom shelf doggie treats he could fit in his mouth.”

Just then, Cub perks up and starts howling.

“Hey. Can I call you back?”

As Marcus hangs up, Cub runs to the other side of the bed to howl at the window. Marcus picks up Cub and stands in front of the window to look out and sees the greenhouse below and the Luthor mansion in the horizon under the North Star. Nothing seems out of the ordinary.

BOOM!

A blast of light erupts from the Luthor mansion and shines so tall and so bright it eclipses the North Star.

“Marcus!” Esca runs into the room.

“We gotta go!” Marcus heads to exit the room but Esca holds him back by the arm.

“No.” Esca grips as tight as he can. “Not until we have word from her.”

“But . . .”

“Stay here.” Esca turns Marcus to face him. “Stay with me.”

Marcus shrugs his shoulders and looks away from Esca to Cub trying to burrow down into his arms. Esca, with a gentle scritch to Cub’s head, coaxes the puppy onto his left arm. With his free hand, he caresses Marcus’s cheek and cups his chin, coaxing Marcus to look at him so they are looking straight into each others’ eyes. “Don’t leave me now; stay with me.”

Marcus nods and lets Esca step closer in until there is nothing between them except the threads of their clothes.

❀

The next morning, Marcus drives the perimeter of the property. As he approaches the Luthor mansion, he keeps his eyes ahead on the road but rolls down the windows. As he gets closer, he can make out women and men in military surplus clothes posted about and when he focuses, he can separate the wind’s buzzing roar from a woman’s screams. At each scream, Marcus grips the steering wheel as tight as he can. Or, as tight as Esca would grip and pull him back away from Tess.

When he arrives back at the house, he goes straight through to the greenhouse and once inside, there’s nothing between him and the Luthor mansion except fields of corn, iron bars, steel frames, and the small ocean of dark purple danger that surrounds him.

“Marcus.” Esca comes by with Cub — the leash held short and tight because of the force with which Cub pulls forward — and a grey notecard. Marcus receives the notecard through the gates and reads:

> Marcus,
> 
> Be a loyal worker and devote all your energy to the flowers. No more than three minutes of mist per day and open the doors nightly. Stress the plants for smaller yet more concentrated berries.
> 
> Tess.

_How much work and energy does it really take to neglect her flowers?_

“Tess. You fool.”

❀

With some hired extra help, it takes Marcus and Esca a day to catch up on the work they’ve slacked off on in the past few days and the rest of the summer falls into a routine.

Marcus drives the perimeter of the property alone, but the confession to Esca — the strong pull the Luthor mansion has on him to storm the place — means that Marcus never again makes the drive alone. 

“I hear them say a name frequently.” Marcus eyes the driver’s seat Esca sits in. “Major Zod.”

At that, Esca locks all the car doors. 

On other drives, sometimes, Esca will lock the car doors and sometimes Marcus will ask to be let out and sometimes Esca will have no response but sometimes Esca will say, “No.” And to that, Marcus always asks, “Why? Because Ms. Mercer doesn’t want me to? Or because you don’t want me to?” And Esca always answers, “Yes.” And at that answer, Marcus is always restless — tapping fingers on the glovebox, on the windows; palming the windows, the shifter; taking deep breaths.

And in the evenings — after the doors to the greenhouse have been let open — during his walks with Cub, sometimes he turns towards the greenhouse and its newly erected waist-high barbed-wire fence. But all Marcus gets is a glance before Cub barks and tugs Marcus any which way as long as it’s away from the greenhouse.

In the late evenings, sometimes Marcus looks out the master bedroom window to the Luthor mansion and it’s these evenings that Esca knows that Marcus replays the screams he has heard on the morning’s drive and it’s too easy for Esca to not tell him what he doesn’t — and does — see happening in the horizon. These are the nights when Esca sets a glass of water and small bowl of fruits on the nightstand at Marcus’s side and places crisp, cotton sheets inside mentioned nightstand. These are the nights when Esca tries to keep as much of his skin on Marcus’s skin which shouldn’t be but is a relief from the summer heat.

And so it goes until late in the evening after the harvest is completely done and Marcus stands before the master bedroom window and asks, “How long am I supposed to keep doing nothing?”

“But you aren’t doing nothing. You’re being a loyal caretaker for her greenhouse.”

“And how long do I stay loyal? ’Til she’s dead?”

“I guess: She wants your faith in her being alive.”

Esca sets down a pitcher of water and a large bowl of fruits and places in flannel sheets.

❀

The next morning, flannel sheets are still in the nightstand but the pitcher and bowl are empty. Marcus lies naked and wide awake in bed, yet stays under the covers despite the shadows outside betraying the bright sun more than its height over the horizon. Esca, long since dressed for the day, stands over Marcus with phone in hand to text for extra help for the day.

“No drive this morning?” Esca asks.

“Just enough to get me to the greenhouse. I’ll meet you in the fields?”

“Whenever you’re ready, come to me.” Esca lays a kiss onto Marcus’s forehead. “And if you know you won’t be, call me and I’ll come to you.”

Esca is gone for more than many long moments when Marcus sits up in bed and takes more time stretching and flexing his arm and back muscles before ambling over to the dresser on top of which lay clothes Esca has chosen for him. Eventually, he makes it to the kitchen for a breakfast of cold milk and a few slices of untoasted bread before heading out to the kitchen.

Maybe Marcus leaves the mist on a few minutes too long. But that’s not why Cub barks. After a few minutes, Marcus hears high heels clicking across the house’s wood floors.

When Tess pushes through the kitchen door, Cub is quick to leap at her and nip at her heels. But a few moments of her ignoring him confuses him and he backs down and lays down in front of the kitchen door, head on the ground.

“I love the security upgrade you’ve given my flowers.” Tess eyes the barbed-wire fence.

“Your flowers take care of themselves just fine. Fence is there to protect Cub in case he tries to do something foolish to rescue me.” Marcus glances at Cub who, despite his head down on the ground, has a peeved insolence all over his face. “Seems he doesn’t like me being trapped in here.”

“I should make him leave you alone.”

“You could try. But you keep in mind he’s the only one on this property who has no care at all for Luthor Corp. CEOs.”

Tess looks over her shoulder to stare down the puppy who dares to be so independent, so insolent. But when he stands his ground, she lets her stare turn into a smirk and then a smile and with that, she enters the greenhouse and rubs a leaf between her left hand’s gloved fingers.

“I thought I told you to stress these flowers. You’re only halfway towards a junior college degree but surely you understand why — smaller, more concentrated, and sweeter berries.”

“How could something so toxic to bring your heart to the brink produce something so sweet?” Marcus asks. And when he notices the bruises on her, “And is that the same thing you think of the man who did that to your face?”

“They’re nothing that won’t heal in due time. They’re nothing to worry about.”

“NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT!!!” Marcus slams his palm onto a metal cart. “All summer long you’ve been getting tortured ! You can’t . . . I can’t . . .” Marcus struggles to hold himself up. “I can’t let you protect me without me protecting you.”

“No. You will stay here.”

“You can’t make me stay here and be nothing.”

“You aren’t nothing. You’re the only one who can take care of these flowers.”

“Tell me you’re safe now!”

“I am.”

“Those people, especially Zod. They’re gone?”

“They are. He is.”

“For good?”

Tess laughs. “Zod does nothing for good.”

“Then you can’t ask me to keep away.”

“I need all the weapons I have — including these flowers, including you.” Stepping to Marcus, she lays her right hand onto Marcus’s cheek and lets the leather musk swirl into Marcus’s headspace. “You want to protect me?”

Marcus nods.

“Then I need you protected. By yourself. And by me. Here. And I need you to trust me.”

“That’s a lot of loyalty and faith you ask of me.”

“But I know you can do it, Marcus, I know it. So do a good job.” Ms. Mercer leans in to whisper, “Be good for me.”

Letting go, Tess leaves and Marcus follows.

❀

More than a month later, the greenhouse harvest is a good one and Tess comes by the house with lab results — nonvolatile alkaloids which she wants which are usually gone by late harvest have been found in trace amounts. She hasn’t tested the berries yet, but she sounds certain again to find the amino acids she wants. Tess has already handwritten the words at the bottom of the report but she says so out loud anyways with a wink, “Good job.”

In the kitchen, with a clear line of sight to Marcus and Tess, Esca stands with his arms crossed across his chest. Tess, for all her daring has touched Marcus many times — even skin to skin. But the wink is new. She could command all his faith and loyalty. But how dare she try the same for Marcus’s affection. She leaves, but not without a glance and a smile to Esca.

Now alone, Esca pounces Marcus. “You seem more alive than you have been in a while.”

“Esca! You act like you’ve missed me.”

“Oh I have. I’ve been missing you lately and you will make it up to me by giving me your all tonight.”

Esca presses his hand to Marcus’s cheek and when the heat zings through Marcus’s body, Marcus can only rush after Esca who’s already run upstairs.

❀

Instead of the put-put of an old car to let Marcus know Esca has come back with pumpkins, he hears a vroom and that’s his cue to make his way from the equipment barn to the greenhouse where he finds Tess waiting for him outside, one hand holding another purple flower he’d never seen before and the other motioning for him to go inside. When he hears the gates and doors close behind him, he turns around to face Tess who simply says:

“I kidnapped Lois.”

“Maybe I should’ve specified: You weren’t to hurt Clark directly or indirectly.”

“She’s fine now, already recovered and back at work.”

“And I suppose you’re worse for the wear for what you did.”

“I’ve seen my fate; makes me consider a trip to Summerholt.”

“Seems like, no one comes out of there with their memories intact. Is that what happens? And isn’t that worse than dying? Not having a large chunk of who you are?”

“That won’t matter — I die.”

Marcus mouth drops open.

“It wasn’t Zod who killed me; it was my working with him that did. But I see now that he must be stopped.”

“So you’ll go back to him — while I do nothing?”

“Of course. Do make me test you. How faithful and loyal are you to me?”

“I’m still here, aren’t I?”

“How faithful and loyal are you to me in the face of my death. Marcus — ” Tess snaps her fingers in Marcus’s face. “Let me test you.”

“Is that flower . . . ?” Marcus looks down and away and his hands shake in washing motions. “I can’t . . .”

“Marcus. It’s just a test. Let me test you.”

“No . . .”

“If at anytime you need me to stop, just grab my hand. But let me test you.”

Marcus clasps his hands together and taking in a deep sigh.

“Marcus.”

Marcus faces her and nods yes.

“This flower, think of it as a cousin to the one you’ve been growing for me. They have similar defenses — most animals don’t like their hearts messed with do they?”

Tess rolls up a sleeve a few inches and unwraps the flower. When Marcus shakes his head no, she stabs herself.

“Hands behind your back!” Tess orders Marcus.

Marcus obeys yet he still protests. “Why are you doing this? You’re going to die within minutes!” If Marcus runs . . .

“And how do we — or in this case, you — make the plant produce more toxins?”

“Stressing the plant.” Marcus clasps his hands behind him so hard, yet his nails will never dig into his skin the way a sharpened stem can. “Deny light. Deny water. Expose to wind.”

“As I have been with my flowers.” Tess steps away from Marcus and walks around the greenhouse.

“You can’t move. The effects’ll take faster!” How much faster? . . . how much more than it is now? . . . It would take the ambulance . . .how long . . . ?

“Are you so scared of the entire plant?”

Marcus nods but his body is still tense and shuffling his feet in place barely masks his shaking. It’s only twenty feet to the gates . . .

“But remember what I had you do the day you pollinated them.”

Marcus remembers harvesting petals. Thick leather gloves and sleeves shielded him from thorns that would make his heart race . . . Race how fast? . . . Faster than he can run? . . .

“These are clever plants. Toxic stems and leaves for protection.”

Only another twenty from the gate to the kitchen door . . . Another ten to the phone between the living room and the kitchen . . .

“But the flowers and berries aren’t. It wouldn’t do to poison the pollinators and seed carriers would it? In fact, the flowers and berries — the flowers especially — have an amino acid that acts as an antidote. Can you guess how to make the plant make more antidote?”

“Stress the plant? . . . Do nothing . . . Wait! . . .” It would take only a moment to call 911 . . .

“If you were to taste the leaves and stems, they would be overwhelmingly bitter. But the berries? Quite sweet. The flowers? They are uniquely savory with a touch of sweetness.”

“And you’ve been . . . eating the flowers?”

“Cooking with the petals and drinking nothing except its tea since last night.”

“You!” A tear rolls down Marcus’s cheek as he takes in quick yet deep breaths. “You can’t . . . I can’t . . . ”

“I did. Because I knew you could.”

“I should’ve trusted you but I panicked.”

“What did I test you for?”

“Loyalty? Faith?”

“It’s not faith if you have proof; and your faith is the foundation of your loyalty.” Tess pulls from her pocket a plastic bag of purple petals, walks back to Marcus, looks into his eyes, and commands, “You stayed where you were. You did good. Now open your mouth.”

He parts his lips. She places a petals on his lips, careful to avoid skin-to-skin contact. With his teeth and tongue, he coaxes the petal further into his mouth and as it breaks down on his tongue, it’s as if grilled meats could instead be berries and roses. As the savory and sweet, fruity and floral flavor coats his mouth, he feels his heart beat slower.

“Do you want to stop now?” Tess asks. “You know what you have to do.”

“Tess.” Marcus brings his right hand up, palm up. And Tess brings her right hand down to meet his.


	5. Chapter 5

Later that evening, Marcus lies on the couch, looks up at the ceiling, and says, “I’m a failure — just like my father.”

“You’re not like your father.” Esca brings over water and beef jerky and pumpkin pie to the end table by the couch.

“Right. Dad gave up in the face of Luthors. I submit to them. Two totally different things.”

“You don’t submit to them.” Esca spreads a blanket over Marcus. “Only one of them. And besides — ”

“A Luthor who’s not really a Luthor. That’s how you try to make me feel better?”

“Maybe you need to find the right person to submit to.” Esca settles himself on top of Marcus, cheeks resting on Marcus’s chest.

“Maybe.” Marcus begins to wrap his arms around Esca but then moves a hand up to Esca’s cheek and the other down to Esca’s hand. Pins and needles zing through his legs, he begins to feel warmer, and his heart beats stronger. He nudges Esca so he can look into his eyes blowing wide. “Now?”

“Stay!” Esca pushes Marcus back down.

“But you’re — ”

“Rest!” Esca pins down Marcus. Then, leaning in closer, he whispers, “Oh yes I am right now. But don’t worry. Tomorrow, I’ll test you —  _thoroughly_ test you.”

 _Breathe,_ Marcus tells himself. _Breathe_

“Tomorrow will be a test. Tomorrow night will be another test.”

“Tonight?”

“Your rest is your preparation is your first test.”

“Ah.” Marcus settles into the couch and closes his eyes as Esca settles onto him again. _So. More stress means more bitter, more savory, and more sweet._

❀

“Tell me again how Checkmate won’t hurt Clark?” Marcus asks Tess as he tills a pot’s soil. “So you spied on Lex for them. But the enemy of my enemy could still be my enemy.”

“I’m sure Martha would never allow anyone to hurt her son.”

“Wait? Mrs. Kent?”

“She’s quite the player in Washington DC now.”

“Is that why you’re telling me this? Because of her? I doubt your boss — Amanda Waller, right? — agrees. And she’s your boss only at Checkmate, right?”

“Yes, she has no authority over what I do at _The Daily Planet_ nor at Luthor Corp. And yes, Amanda and Martha don’t see eye to eye on everything. But we all agree that aliens and super-powered humans are especially destructive. Which is why you steer clear of meteor-infected people and shape shifters and other such beings, right?”

“Esca and I steer clear of most people.” Marcus looks out the greenhouse and notes the darkening sky; the days growing longer should make everything feel brighter bit by bit. “We’re not all dangerous; they know that right? Seriously, that agency you work for sounds full of people bigoted against people like me.”

“Martha and I are aware of that, yes. Though, everyone has different ideas. But I’ll see how that plays out. People will make moves and people will get in each others’ way. If I see a good opportunity . . .”

“Why do _you_ get to make moves and not I?”

“When you have power, you give yourself permission.”

“I thought it goes, ‘When you have power, you don’t need permission.’ ”

“But if you don’t give yourself permission, then who will?”

“ . . . Oh . . .”

“I used to be like you — powerless. In due time, you’ll figure out your own power.”

“I already do.”

“Not your abilities. Your power — the world doing your will.”

“That’ll never happen.”

“You got me onto Clark’s side.”

“Doing shady things.”

“If it weren’t for you — and this is before Martha joined Checkmate — I would have been more suspicious of him. I made a deal with you, you countered with your own deal. So. If you’re ever ready. I’d take you on as a protégé. Or maybe not you. Maybe Lois Lane.”

“Please. After what she did to my uncle’s dog’s tail — and she ran over Clark’s dog! — Esca and I hug Cub tightly every time we see her.”

Tess laughs.

❀

By the time a put-put ambles up the driveway, the slow cooker still hasn’t been emptied out into a serving bowl — instead, it’s been set to warm.

“The tractor parts’ll arrive — ” Esca cuts himself short at the sight of Marcus in the middle of the living room, taking off his shirt, muscles flexing and tightening and eyes blown wide. “You. Bed. Face down. Now!” 

Afterwards — after they’re exhausted and collapsed on the bed — Esca manages to mumble out, “This . . . is different.”

“Besides you, I don’t think I’ve ever thought anyone thought of me as sexy.”

“And you wonder why I thought it was a bad idea for you to date Sid.”

“Hm. I thought he and I could bond over being meteor-infected.”

“As much as I loved seeing you shoot him down every time he opened his mouth, he said a lot of awful things about you. I never liked hearing him call you ‘cripple’ or ‘liability.’ How dare he blame you for his own insecurities.”

“So: While I was waiting for you to come home, I realized a few things. If I never believed Sid, then why did I act like it? All this not being around people or dressed in bulky layers when I am. I’ve never tried to be sexy.”

“Why try now?”

“Maybe I’m slow to figure things out?”

Esca rolls his eyes.

“Just trying to figure out how much of it I can control.”

“And?”

“Do you like?”

Esca eyes Marcus’s body up and down and back up again. “Yeah, I wouldn’t mind eye candy around the farm.”

“Well then, I got what I wanted.”

❀

The summer and most of the spring pass uneventfully until late May when Tess comes by. A colder and more stressful winter has made the plants come out of dormancy earlier than normal and a few plants already have green berries a few weeks early and with slightly higher then normal concentrations of alkaloids.

“Good job,” Tess praises a beaming Marcus standing beside her. “I trust you’ll continue on without direction from me?”

“Where are you going?” Marcus frowns.

“I need to be as flexible as possible. But I’ll email you an itinerary to the Arctic Circle.”

“Lex disappeared there.”

“This has nothing to do with Lex.”

“Then for?”

“Fate or destiny. If I can help it, destiny.”

“Zod. You have to let me do something.”

“And that something is staying here. I can’t lose you. I’ve lost Oliver and Clark — ”

“You worked with Zod.”

“And I’ve lost Zod.”

“You never had him. Not when your first encounter with him was his beating you.”

“And you? Do I still have you?”

“Between Zod and Checkmate you’ve been acting Luthor-esque lately with all your power grabs. You said you wouldn’t hurt Clark, but you work with those you wouldn’t trust with Clark.”

“I wanted him to achieve his destiny.”

“So you bind him to his fate?”

“Marcus. Why are you still here?”

“Because I want to stay a farmer and to keep Esca. But I told you: As long as you remember you’re not a Luthor, you’ll have my willing faith and loyalty.”

With one hand, Tess reaches for Marcus’s cheek and her other hand reaches for Marcus’s hand and Marcus steps in closer to Tess.

“Marcus. I will go to the Arctic Circle. And I will prove to you everything you want — my loyalty to Clark, and that I am not a Luthor.”

“But Zod . . .”

“Stay here. And if I die and stay dead, consider that your release from me and your nothingness.”

As Tess leaves the greenhouse and Marcus follows, they meet Esca with Cub on a leash. Esca lets Tess pass by to go on through the house but he pulls Marcus back, keeping Marcus with him between the greenhouse and the house.

“I heard all that,” Esca says. “So if she dies, we lose the farm? Or you leave?”

“She won’t die.”

“And you are so sure?”

“For every enemy who wants her dead, there is another enemy who wants her alive.”

“To believe the latter, you must have a lot of faith in her. And that’s a lot of faith to have in a Luthor.”

“Yes it is. And you wouldn’t have me any other way.”

“Yeah. I’d rather have you any way that keeps you here and mine. Took you long enough to figure this out.” At this, Esca takes Marcus’s hand to take him out to the fields.

❀

With the solstice, summer officially arrives but still no word of Tess. Yet, Marcus holds out hope for her life even as Esca starts researching state and county laws on adverse possession.

But, just as her disappearance was a mysterious non-issue to not talk about, so is her post at _The Daily Planet_ as the newspaper’s Editor in Chief at the end of the summer.

One evening, Marcus and Esca curl up on the sofa with Metropolis’s premiere newspaper as Cub lay splayed out on a sofa pillow napping.

“She seems to be settling down as _The Daily Planet’s_ editor,” Esca comments.

“Please.” Marcus huffs. “There is no settling down with her. There is only bringing things up, including the newspaper’s reputation and reach. She’s always on to the big thing, always after her destiny.”

“We should invite Cottia over. I’m sure she’d have lots to say about _The Daily Planet’s_ Editor in Chief and Luthor Corp.’s  CEO being the same person.”

“But then I’d point out Ms. Mercer’s editorial about The Blur and the plea for their privacy so long as The Blur doesn’t commit crimes or destroy property.”

“Are you sure Clark is the Blur? Clark likes to wear red and blue, not black.”

“I’m sure. I know that strength. But mostly, the heat vision. I guess he’s not scared of using that anymore.”

Over the winter and spring, Marcus and Esca’s habits with the news evolve. Local news broadcasts and newspapers once made Marcus and Esca squirm occasionally with quiet and factual-toned yet blaming reporting on the town’s meteor-infected people but otherwise were familiar and comforting as an old blanket.

But Gordon Godfrey’s anti-hero rhetoric spreads across the Metropolis. “He’s just some nobody radio DJ trying to get into everyone’s radio and TV. Everyone’ll see him for the zealot he is,” Esca tries to assure himself and Marcus. But they lose some hope when Godfrey’s reach extends past Metropolis, and his book becomes word on what to think about vigilantes and, by extension, super-powered humans. And Smallville’s townsfolk in particular adopt some of the more venomous rhetoric, bit by bit, Marcus and Esca stop buying local papers and stop tuning into local broadcasts. By the time the Vigilante Registration Act passes in November, _The Daily Planet_ is their only source of news yet this doesn’t stop them from hearing the townsfolk want the  VRA expanded to cover other “freaks.”

So they cling to _The Daily Planet_ as their lifeline until one day in February when the entire newspaper is awash with pro- VRA articles — even the one whose byline is Lois Lane.

Marcus and Esca hug each other as tight as they can. Marcus kisses the top of Esca’s head and wonders, “Maybe we were asking for too much to want to be normal.”

“No.” Esca grips tighter. “We’ve done nothing wrong. If we have to demand fair treatment, then so be it as the only fair thing to do.”

BEEP BEEP!

Marcus looks down at the unfamiliar number on his phone’s caller ID yet recognizes the Metropolis area code and answers anyway.

“Hello?”

“Marcus! Yes! It’s you!”

“Ms. Mercer! Where are you!? What’s going on!? You’d never let that print — especially not that Lois Lane impostor.”

“I just got out of Summerholt to get something to tie loose ends. I’m at a pay phone somewhere at the edge of Metropolis. And it’s . . . complicated.”

“I’m a good lie detector. You said so. Don’t lie to me.”

“It’s Lionel Luthor. And he’s after his son, or a clone of his son.”

Marcus blinks. Whatever the truth, Tess certainly believed what she said. “Okay . . .”

“The official story is that he faked his death but he’s really from an alternate world.”

“Not the explanation I expected. But okay . . .”

“At worst, you and Esca over there have his attention and he will come after you here.”

“Okay . . . Great . . . Not.”

“But there’s a chance that he had no clue for you over there. But just in case. I’m going to lock one of Oliver Queen’s satellites on you. You know what to do right?”

“Do nothing. But what about you?”

“I secure-wiped everything about the farm from Luthor Corp.’s servers years ago — everything from hard drives to backups to backups of backups. And — at the moment — the farm belongs to a government agency.”

“What? . . .”

“The flowers, Marcus.”

“The flowers! I can take care of the flowers!”

“Stress the plants and stress them as hard as you can.”

❀

A season passes. There are days when Marcus and Esca relax with the absence of unannounced visitors and Cub goes on with his antics such as trying to climb the baby fence at the pantry or trying to jump onto the sofa. And then there are days when the waiting for such visitors casts its own gloom and Marcus and Esca cuddle and cling to each other on the sofa as Cub tries to burrow into their arms.

But one morning, Marcus and Esca feel the stir in the sky and sense something coming from high above.

“This isn’t just us, is it?” Marcus asks Esca who shakes his head no and Marcus follows up asking, “So what do you want us to do?”

“I want . . .” Esca reaches for Marcus’s hands. Surely, Marcus can feel the heart pounding against the ribcage. But what does Marcus feel of paralysis? “I want us, on this land, working together.”

And as the day passes, the sky slowly turns from a bright and cool blue to a burning orange shadow and by noon, they’ve dismissed all the farmhands.

Esca turns up to Marcus. “Is it too late to turn the house into a home? Let’s work on that together.”

Smiling at Esca, Marcus holds hands with him and together they walk back together.

They’re in the kitchen baking and letting Cub munch away at doggie treats after forbidding him from the honey when they hear a screech from the driveway followed by heels clicking on the hardwood floors.

“Ms. Mercer!” Marcus takes his attention off the stand mixer.

“You! In the greenhouse now! Press all the berries! Distill all the leaves! Now!”

Once alone, Tess pulls a letter-sized envelope from inside her coat and hands it to Esca who opens it to reveal the deed to the land with both his and Marcus’s names and papers of sale, from an Icarus Corp. to them.

“All yours.”

“Ms. Mercer!” Esca yells after Tess as she makes her way to the greenhouse. “I forgot to thank you for saving Marcus’s life . . . that afternoon when you held his hand in the hospital.”

“Don’t worry.” Tess winks. “Marcus hasn’t either. But I suppose I should thank him for making me save Clark. Or maybe I should thank you for constantly reminding me? But you knew how much I’d owe him for the influence Clark’s had on my life, didn’t you?”

Esca nods. “I had to. Marcus had that faith in Clark.”

“I get it. Now take the land. It’s yours — free and clear.”

Inside the greenhouse, Tess examines the plants. A third of them are already dead and another third are struggling. But a third of them might be enough and Marcus has already pressed 10mL of juice from one small cluster of green berries. And the distiller is slowly separating oil from water and it looks to be no more than a few mL.

“The juice and oil are going to be more concentrated than last year’s but the yields are much smaller.” Marcus stares intently at the distiller.

“It’s fine,” Tess says as she pulls out a small vial, half-filled with a dark black liquid and begins to fill it the rest of it with the extracts from the leaves.

“What’s that?” Marcus eyes the vial.

“I deleted all records of this farm from Luthor Corp. This vial is to tie loose ends.”

“I see . . .” Marcus nods. “The extracts from your leaves . . . Triple the heart rate, triple the delivery rate?”

“Exactly. And juice from the berries is so that he doesn’t feel the effects on his heart.” Tess puts a hand on Marcus’s shoulder. “If he isn’t already, Lionel Luther will probably die . . . So Lex can live.”

“Lex!” 

“You see why I have to do this.”

“But what will happen to you?” Marcus grips Tess’s hand. “You can’t go.”

“Marcus.” Tess pulls out a small lead box from her jacket’s inside pocket. Inside is a large, green, meteor rock ring which she puts onto Marcus’s ring finger where it glows brighter. Slipping her hands into his, he nods yes as he takes off her gloves and lets her take his hands.

His knees buckle, but that’s the only movement he can make. Tess pulls him closer and she runs her hands to his neck, to his cheeks. Their eyes are level, and he looks straight into her eyes as he shakes his head no. Yet she pulls him in so they touch cheek-to-cheek. Finally she whispers, “You have to let me go.”

She pulls back for one more look at Marcus who still shakes his head no before she goes back in for a kiss.

At the touch of their lips, Marcus feels the heart beat slower, yet harder. It’s the only thing he feels, the only thing his body does even if involuntarily. When Tess pulls away, he locks eyes with her as she lowers him down onto the ground.

“A quiet destiny is still a destiny.” Tess caresses Marcus’s cheek one more time and lifts up his hand with the ring and kisses the ring. “Let me go, and I promise you a man will fly.”

After she leaves, Cub stands outside yelping. When he starts howling, Esca rushes from the kitchen and into the greenhouse.

“Marcus!” Esca rushes over to Marcus and slips off the ring. “Are you okay?”

“You know . . .” Marcus looks at the ceiling of glass panes above him. “When we go hunting, there’s that moment when the animal knows it’s going to die. And that’s how she’s going in.”

On the ground holding hands, they linger there for a while looking up at the sky. Maybe they wait for Marcus’s control to return and his heart to return to normal. Maybe they wait for the burning planet to crash down.

Then, a text comes in from Cottia:

> `TURN ON TV NOW! MAN IN BLUE SUIT RED CAPE PUSHING PLANET AWAY`

“So . . . Clark isn’t scared of heights anymore?” Marcus wonders from the greenhouse floor. _From these mysterious flowering shrubs to the sky, is that what everything in this greenhouse has been for?_

“Well. He’s up there isn’t he?”

“Can you see him Esca?”

“No. My eyes are great but not that great. But we can see the planet moving away.”

“And that’s good enough.”

“Is it? Didn’t you want to redeem your father’s reputation? Wouldn’t this help if people knew about you and Ms. Mercer?”

_Tess. I hope — somehow, someway, someday — you can see this. You will be proud._

“Doesn’t matter.” Marcus squeezes Esca’s hand; if only Esca could feel his contentment. “You know. And you’re all that matters.” 


End file.
